The Spectacle of Books

Outside, Maarten Baas’ neon Intellectual Heritage artwork had caught our eye last night, in the dark. Inside, its past as a post office is reflected in the sculptures and reliefs, high on its brick-domed caverns, representing every continent.

The brick built main hall is bustling – and not just because it’s raining. There’s a sound bath taking place, with teens sprawled across beanbags wearing headphones. There are plenty of people milling around and returning books. But we turn left, nosing around, to discover the Spectacle of Books.

Here, metalwork frames hang with perforated paper bags. Each one contains a book. At a distance, they all look pretty similar. And up close, they’re pretty indistinguishable, too. So much for judging a book by its cover…

And this is the point. Invited to ‘be surprised by the unknown’: there are novels, poetry, autobiographies, children’s books and thrillers by writers – who haven’t yet been published. YOU are their first reader.

Not sure which book to choose? Decision tree quizzes ask you what sort of book you’re looking for today:

• escape: something that transports me to another world?

• are you looking for in-depth discovery or inspiration to create something yourself?

• are you looking for hope or an inconvenient truth?

All that the Spectacle asks is that you return the manuscript – by post, if necessary – and share your feedback on the card provided.

Art historian and archivist Deirdre Carasso has been the Director of the public library of Utrecht since 2020, overseeing 12 libraries. A podcast led her to the Richard Brautigan novel, The Abortion: An Historical Romance, in which the narrator works in a fictitious library filled with unpublished manuscripts.

Carasso discovered that the library existed in real life, too – The Brautigan Library in the Clark County Historical Museum in Vancouver, Washington.

“Libraries offer books that have been published. In a sense that makes publishers the library’s gatekeepers,” says Carasso.

“The Spectacle of Books also gives people who have written something that has not been published the opportunity to share their story” and is part of the library’s mission to democratise its work.

The library opened in late January with 500 books, and has already received more than 350 new titles.

Those books span quite a range – the youngest author is just seven, and travelled from Amsterdam to share her book; the library’s oldest authors are in their nineties.

One of the library’s authors, Simone Becker, wrote a column about her experience of handing in a book.

“Remember: Whoever writes, remains. There are probably a few people who will borrow your work,” she writes. “I stand up. I didn’t expect to burst into tears today. But I also didn’t expect my stories to be available for loan at the library.”

“And no one can take that away from me.”

Image credits: Fiona Shaw

Find out more: bibliotheekutrecht.nl/about-the-spectacle-of-books

Read Simone’s experience at: siemschrijft.nl/wie-schrijft-die-blijft/cchmuseum.org/brautigan-library