Marc Provins

Yesterday was the launch of LOOK/13 The International Photography Festival in Liverpool. It was also the opening of Liverpool's Central Library after being closed for several years for a major re-fit and makeover. I somehow managed to inadvertently involve myself in both events by creating a book for LOOK/13 that is placed in four Liverpool libraries. I'll cover all of the locations over a few blog posts but thought I should start the ball rolling with the venue most people are likely to visit. I didn't know until yesterday where my book would be placed within the library and was quite overwhelmed when I found it in the Picton Reading Room. The Library actually takes your breath away as you walk in, it's like no other library I've ever been in, it's spectacular and awe inspiring. It's on a vast scale and managed to make me think of it's illustrious history as well as exciting me with an example of what a contemporary library can be.  The Picton ...

LOOK/13 opens today and my five books will be on display for all to see. They are such personal and understated objects that I hope they don't get lost in the spectacle. It's a strange sensation having invested many hours in their creation to hand them over and hope they start a life of their own in new homes in Liverpool.  The theme for the festival is 'Who Do You Think You Are?', and my response was to Google my name. The Google Images result is shown above, which then formed the basis of my books. It's Google curating my work, so all of the images are mine, other peoples's that appeared have been black out and these blacked out shapes go into the book too.  I made a small book that contains the images, which is hidden inside a 1950's encyclopaedia, linking contemporary ways of finding information with traditional methods. These have now been donated to four libraries in Liverpool - Central, Toxteth, University of Liverpool (which has two books, one...