The library is an installation of around 30 books ‘turned to stone’ amidst the internationally renowned Artis Library collection that contains works by Linnaeus, Merian, Buffon and Darwin. One of my books is part of this collection, serial number AB 031:09A
Apart from the alabaster books, one could see fossilised letters in the vitrine with the VOC memorabilia and a crammed group of books in another one. A sculpted dove lay on the directors table and a letter folded open solitary on a desk.
Tijs Goldschmidt, writer and evolutionary biologist, wrote a piece about this installation:
‘Petrified books: an eternal library’