Marc Provins

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...

I had a thought provoking stroll on Tuesday around bits of Liverpool I'd never seen before. I visited Toxteth Library as it's one of the locations for my LOOK/13 book. It's right next to the splendour of the Anglican Cathedral. The library though is a gem in it's own right, opened in 1902 it is beautifully proportioned with a dome, all harking back to a time when libraries were an essential way of accessing information and central to a community. This description is from the Victorian Society website: "Red brick and stone trim. Symmetrical to Windsor Street, with two big  Venetian windows under gables with obelisks, the main entrance with a far-projecting hood. Small  cupola above. Two more Venetian windows to Upper Parliament Street. The former reading room  (north side) contains a mural by W. Alison Martin and Clinton Balmer, an allegory with Knowledge  enthroned; also a copper plaque in Celtic Art Nouveau style by C. E. Thompson, commemorating the  openi...