Curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielinska, The Book Lovers is an ongoing project that focuses on the phenomenon of artist novels by collecting them, while also studying and celebrating them through an online database, a pop-up bookstore and a series of exhibitions and public programs. After being hosted by institutions such as M HKA in Antwerp, De Appel in Amsterdam or EFA Project Space in New York among others, the project arrives to Fabra i Coats – Contemporary Art Center Barcelona as the epilogue of "The Text: First Notions and Findings," its first annual exhibition program curated by Martí Manen and David Armengol. The program deals with the emotional relationships that are established between the writer and the reader, and attempts to translate them into the exhibition space. Consisting of five shows, it is aptly organized like a book: a prologue, three chapters and this epilogue titled "The Preparation of the Novel." Drawing a parallelism between the artist's and the writer's solitude, the exhibition unravels the relationship between the writing of a novel and its visual counterpart, bearing in mind that an artist's novel doesn't differ from any other work of art. Together with titles by 325 artists including AA Bronson, Salvador Dalí, Matias Faldbakken, Liam Gillick, Isidore Isou, Richard Prince and Oscar Tuazon, the show at Fabra i Coats will also feature works by Alexandre Singh, Tom Phillips and Cally Spooner that are closely related to a novel in the collection. (Juan Canela)
"The Preparation of the Novel" at Fabra i Coats – Contemporary Art Center, Barcelona, opens on July 18 and runs through September 5

http://kaleidoscope-press.com/2014/07/followthe-book-lovers/