Idiot Compression

This artwork featured in Never Judge a Book  (2016). A Meadow Arts commission. 

This installation varies in size and form each time it is displayed. It consists of hundreds of sections of books cut into the spine. These fragments could still be opened, leafed through and read, although the meaning is irretrievably lost. Amounting to roughly 20% of the original, they bring to mind the widely accepted notion that we only use 20% of our brain and maybe only retain 20% of any reading – if that. On the floor of Richard Booth’s bookshop, resting upright, the miniature books have been assembled in what might appear as random formation. Nevertheless, owing to our need to read what we see, the little books defy our imagination by bringing into being strange maps or new constellations, thereby evoking obscure narratives.

Image: Jonathan Callan, Idiot Compression, installation view, Never Judge a Book, Richard Booth’s Bookshop, 2016. Image courtesy of Stefan Handy. 

 

About the artist

Jonathan Callan

Jonathan Callan exhibited in Never Judge a Book, Richard Booth’s Bookshop, 2016, commissioned by Meadow Arts.

Image: Jonathan Callan, Idiot Compression, installation view, Never Judge a Book, Richard Booth’s Bookshop, 2016. Image courtesy of Meadow Arts. Photography: Stefan Handy.