Words Inside

Sobers, Shawn

Abstract

Solo photography exhibition - This photography series is interested in marginalia – notes in the margins of books, and the other markings they carry that were not there when new. The photographs on display are a combination of my own books, and ones that have been kindly lent to me by others.

Many see writing in books as a kind of sacrilege, but those who do it (including myself) say they do it for their love of books, not from any disrespect. William Blake wrote in the margins of Johan Lavater’s ‘Aphorisms’ saying, “I write from the warmth of my heart, & cannot resist the impulse I feel to rectify what I think false in a book I love so much, & approve so generally.”

Writers as respected as Mark Twain, Alexander Pope, Charles Darwin, Samuel Johnson, James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and many others carried out marginalia in the books they owned. Evidence of having a conversation with the books they engaged with, physical remnants of their thought processes. Ezra Pound made marginalia comments in response to other notes found in his books, once writing, “Some damn fool had this book before I bought it. I am not responsible for the notes in his handwriting.”

Digital platforms such as the Kindle allow notes and highlights to be made in e-books, seemingly legitimizing marginalia practice which has been frowned upon in physical book formats. With the advance of digital technology as it is, we easily forget that the physical book as we have known it for centuries is also a form of technology, known as a Codex format of binding paper together. Before the codex, a popular technology for written language was the papyrus scroll, and before that texts were carved into stone, bark, and other materials able to hold markings. Digital devices are another technology in that literary delivery lineage, not the first.

Marginalia in books act in various roles; as autobiographies, references, memories, sign-posts, deconstruction, analysis, education, toolkits, reviews, book-marks, affirmations, arguments, imagination, reminders, and serve many other functions. Often they are more interesting than the books themselves.

Thanks to the owners of these books, who bravely allowed me to photograph their intimate markings.

For further reading see ‘Marginalia: Readers Writing in Books’ by H.J. Jackson. 2001, Yale University Press

Supported by University of the West of England and Firstborn Creatives

Citation

Sobers, S. (2012). Words Inside. 1 October 2012 - 1 January 2013. (Unpublished)

• Exhibition Performance Type: Exhibition
• Conference Name: Words Inside
• Conference Location: at-Bristol Science Centre
• Start Date: Oct 1, 2012
• End Date: Jan 1, 2013
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2012
• Keywords: marginalia, photography, note making, autobiography, biography, books
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/943081