Cloth-Bound Reverie

Abstract

"Cloth-Bound Reverie" constructs scenes of interaction between subjects (readers, collectors, writers) and books. Privately or publicly collected, books are objects with rich and diverse histories. From art to science to history to literature to romance, books yield an array of topics. But what is the object of the book? What is this bound gathering of paper besides a textual information receptacle? This essay answers this question by proposing that a subject’s interaction (reading, collecting, writing) with a book is an occasion for signification. As such, the book is considered as both artifact and index; its existence signals manifold meanings beyond the text contained within. From its conception, to its design, to its reproduction, the book is a material presence. And yet it causes immaterial experiences such as recollection, inspiration and knowledge, to name but a few. Despite our digital age, the concrete object, the book, will endure precisely because of this dialectic of material and immaterial.