Jun 4, 2009

Mysterious artwork enlivens humdrum task

As a librarian, one of the duties is to ensure that all books in the library are being used and, if said books are not used often enough within a certain period of time, to weed unused books from the shelves.

Sad, but true.

Yet today, as summer interns began the arduous task of examining every single book in our fiction area, a small piece of hardened parchment fell out of the pages.


And another.


And another.


Over thirty so far, and we haven't even finished the As.


Who did this? Who depositied tiny pieces of watercolour artwork randomly into the novels of the Fredericton Public Library? No one knows, but it does add a touch of utter wonderment to the day.


I can hardly wait until the Bs.


Anyone have any idea what this is all about? I'd like to thank the artist if I could. Thank you, mysterious painter, I and my colleagues thank you for your gifts.

7 comments:

Remi said...

That's cool. Makes me feel like an underachiever for only leaving shopping lists and subway transfers in my books.

gypsysmom said...

Reminds me of the small paintings in the lobby of the Millenium Library in Winnipeg but those are out in the open. Let us know if you find out who did your artwork.

Monica said...

that is beautiful... I think you should have a 'found art' show.

Pooker said...

I'd bet it was Cliff Eyland, the Winnipeg artist who was responsible for the zillions of little paintings at the Millennium Library, as gypsymom has noticed. I was fascinated by them and did a bit of personal research a while back. I learned that Eyland secretly hid a bunch of his small paintings in books at a New York City Library in the late 1990s. I think he called his project "File Card Works Hidden in Books". Looks like your library is the lucky "victim" of another of his secret projects.

Cliff Eyland said...

I'm afraid that this Fredericton library project is not mine, although I have visited Fredericton frequently over the years. Cheers, Cliff Eyland - cliff.eyland (at)gmail.com

Monica said...

anything more about this, Corey?

Corey said...

Nope. As you can see from the comments, the suspected culprit Cliff Eyland has denied responsibility. There was apparently a small visual arts challenge in Fredericton a few years ago to liven up the town, and some suspect that this art may have something to do with that. The artwork was only found in our "A" section of authors, and a few "B"s.

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