'Bookshelf' by Lydia Pyne

A bookshelf is the means by which the private, plausibly subversive but certainly separate, worlds of books are tamed, ordered (or otherwise ‘arranged’) and placed in the context of the ‘actual’ world’s physical and societal space. This book looks at how, as the nature both of the book and of society have changed through history, the artefact (the bookshelf) where they meet has changed also to reflect and to shape these changes. What does the history of bookshelves tell us about changing conceptions of the book and its place in society? How does control, from authoritarianism to utility to fashion, over the means of arranging books affect the ways in which we approach and read them? The bookshelf is where books align with or battle with their contexts.

May 2016