British Art Show 9: Elliptical Reading

Abigail Reynolds’ work embraces sculpture, collage, moving image and performance. Much of her art is inspired by her deep love of books and libraries. She sees libraries as ‘egalitarian, tolerant, safe spaces teeming with different, conflicting ideas’ where diverse communities overlap. Incensed by their lack of funding, she has fought to defend public libraries in this country.

During British Art Show 9, Reynolds is developing Elliptical Reading, a regular reading hour at local libraries in each city of the BAS9 tour. Readers meet to share short sections from a favourite book, creating between them an unruly text of word collage, which builds over time. In Manchester, Elliptical Reading is presented at Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University, where visitors can find poetry which have been chosen by local readers, rebound by the artist, and re-shelved by the readers in new places outside their usual categories. An insight into the reader’s choice is included on a bookmark in each book.

Reading sessions:

Wed 1 June – 5:30 – 6:30pm
Wed 8 June – 5:30 – 6:30pm
Wed 15 June – 5:30 – 6:30pm
Wed 22 June – 5:30 – 6:30pm