This summer’s exhibition at CCA in Glasgow focuses on the political and social status of libraries. Programmed in collaboration with artist Nick Thurston, CCA’s exhibition spaces will be opened up to house a selection of library and self-publishing resources alongside artworks that look at various histories of, and approaches towards, the protection and presentation of libraries’ collections, infrastructures and their users.

Public libraries have become one of the last remaining spaces where people can gather without expectation or requirement. As the future of libraries and their buildings becomes increasingly precarious, this exhibition aims to expand an understanding of the potential of libraries as sites of resistance, shelter, preservation, creation and restitution, and to do so in a dynamically public way as a functioning library of libraries.

It includes artworks that explore the loss of libraries and books, and how controlling access to them can be a political strategy of occupation. Alongside typical and atypical library resources, the exhibition will also include a series of artworks examining readers’ relationships to publications, alternative politics of collecting publications, and technologies for disseminating and archiving them. Digital sharing platforms will also have a presence in the space, and there will be a series of talks by artists and practitioners throughout the show exploring our ever-changing relationships to public sites for knowledge development and exchange. The exhibition will support a dialogue around the importance of the librarian as an interlocutor, artist and curator, as well as giving access to CCA’s spaces for visitors to read, view and produce.

Publication Studio Glasgow will move into the gallery spaces as an open-source resource for self-publishing. CCA and the Publication Studio partners will run a series of workshops and inductions, enabling any member of the public to design, print and bind their own book edition.

We welcome proposals from any individual or group who would like to use the gallery as a space to meet during The House That Heals the Soul. This project marks the beginning of a series of summer exhibitions in CCA’s main galleries that will open the rooms up as spaces for meeting and exchange, providing the resources and facilities for more autonomous activities to be led by our communities.

The Book Lovers' participation in The House that Heals the Soul is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.

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