Books are tossed out because they must be.
This is a space concern above all else. Despite the increasing variety of means for reading, physical books continue to be produced, sold, consumed, passed along, stored, and also thrown away. Where do we put all these books, eventually, if not in the trash? It’s a real conundrum. Libraries are magical, but Automated Retrieval Centers aside, they are not infinite bags of holding.
Why does it hurt to throw a book away?
Books are among few objects people are taught, as a matter of course, to “respect”: do not throw books; do not dog-ear the pages; do not write in the margins; do not break the spine; do not allow books to get wet or burn. [1]
When our teachers stop telling us this, we repeat it to ourselves and then to our children. I squirm when books molder in damp garages, are pulped for reuse in paper products, or are upcycled as home décor. Was my training too successful? What exactly are my hopes and dreams for that copy of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People?
Is the sacredness of books a romantic ideal?
Is altering books a kind of deprogramming?
For me the practice of creative alteration requires a mantra: There are thousands of these. They’ll end up in the trash otherwise. They’ll end up in the trash otherwise. They’ll end up in the trash otherwise.
But there are lines we don’t cross, right? Things we mustn’t destroy? Trinkets too silly to be made of butchered books? Books too decent to disassemble? Such rhetoric slides me into true confusion, Olfa frozen in indecision. [2]
Bookworm, altered book by the author, 2022
Is the sacredness of books an intellectual ideal?
The Academic Senate voted to save the books.
Those who tend the books are also the most practical.
Librarians and archivists know saving them all is not realistic. A healthy garden requires weeding.
The archive is key. [3]
Let’s keep what’s important, or try to keep a copy of each thing (because who determines importance?).
The orderliness of the archive is a fallacy.
The Archive is chaotic and rich. It exists in the most impressive collections and intentional efforts, but also in our homes, thrift shops, and dentist office waiting rooms. The archive is purposeful and accidental—a function of luck, coincidence, and dedicated labor. The archive is a mammal with a coat that sheds and regrows and changes its character and leaves hair all over the couch.
Creative reuse is a symbolic gesture.
Even if every household in the world had space to display their altered artist books and read their 19th century hardcover flops by the light of stacked-books table lamps, we’d have books coming out our ears. Does the existence of these objects signal that there are just too many of the damn things?
But don’t we have a problem if we treat books as disposable?
With their unique cultural status, books teeter on the edge of the expanding arena of single-use-products. The answer is not to equate books with plastic spoons. Maybe the answer is more artists books, and lots and lots of recycling. The demand for toilet paper shows no sign of dissipating.
worthtrashworthytrashworthy, altered book by the author, 2022
Notes:
1. These rules are exterior to questions of quality. To an extent, it doesn’t matter if this is a first edition of an important literary work or the 27th printing of a best-selling thriller. Collectively and conceptually, books are the embodiment of treasure, of human wisdom, knowledge, expression, desire, history, and culture.
2. My conclusion for now is that crumbling copy of The Firm has served its readers and its time. Now it is collateral damage. It is not alive (not exactly). Maybe it is okay to use it for a planter, a table lamp, or a sculpture.
3. Preservation is also key, but that gets us into that question of quality—stored on the same shelf, yes, but a separate can of literary sausages.
Emily Tipps is a Librarian and the Program Manager for the Book Arts Program and the lead binder for the Red Butte Press at the University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library. Emily is also the proprietor of High5 Press. Her work is exhibited and held in collections nationally.
