A Library Is Not A Home

A Library Is Not A Home - 5 April 1998

outside view of Library

For over 100 years this building served as a free library for the local Mill Rd community in Cambridge. It was closed down by the County Council in early 1996.

Over the winters of 96/97 and 97/98 the building served another kind of use as an emergency winter nightshelter for homeless people. Each night up to 25 people who would otherwise have been forced to sleep rough on the streets, were able to 'borrow' a bed for the night.

On the 5 April the Library was open to the public to view an installation that aimed to both celebrate the work of the nightshelter and raise awareness of the issue of homelessness.

bedroom (lending library) installation >

the sound of a high wind - 254 books (A7 size) each book containing selected extracts from one night's entries in the Staff Communication's Book, date stamped and bearing a fragment of a photograph of the exterior of the building

selected extracts from the books>

01 FEB 1997
TS new face aka "Z" (rhymes with fry)

14 FEB 1997
T missionaries arrived to see him
GE bit down in the dumps - something about being given a black eye from God!?
PARTY PEOPLE: Have told them no sounds after 9pm evenings ..... all agreed

15 FEB 1998
new face PD short with glasses and thinning white hair. Been evicted by friends due to alcohol problem in order to scare him into doing something about it. very mild friendly intelligent + easy going

31 DEC 1996
message from I - JW/W, a liverpool man, may turn up here. Has been hearing voices for 9 days - women be careful
volunteer K will be bringing blackberry and apple crumble in for tea on the 1st January

dining area >

two pairs of hands (women) attempting to reconstruct a broken eggshell using superglue, action carried out at office desk running time 90 minutes

photograph puzzle of a hand holding 25 seashell 'hearts' soaked in cochineal

office >

25 reconstructed eggshells each containing a cochinealed seashell 'heart' in library trays CCTV monitor trained on door of shelter, volume high

viewers admitted singly, given a walkman containing audio tape of woman's voice reciting names of the 329 'bed borrowers' catalogued alphabetically, surname followed by first name/s, viewers reminded of confidential nature of the material - viewers not personally known to the artist given an alternative tape of anonymous statistics regarding the 329 'bed borrowers'

selected works >


two pairs of hands (women) attempting to reconstruct a broken eggshell using superglue, action carried out at office desk running time 90 minutes		photograph puzzle of a hand holding 25 seashell 'hearts' soaked in cochineal

two pairs of hands (women) attempting to reconstruct a broken eggshell using superglue, action carried out at office desk running time 90 minutes photograph puzzle of a hand holding 25 seashell 'hearts' soaked in cochineal

two pairs of hands (women) attempting to reconstruct a broken eggshell using superglue, action carried out at office desk running time 90 minutes

photograph puzzle of a hand holding 25 seashell 'hearts' soaked in cochineal