There was a time, not too long ago, when well-educated people read and re-read physical books. For many individuals their personal library was something that was cherished. You could tell a great deal about someone by the books they kept on their book shelf. It was a glimpse into their mind or at least the influences that molded their thinking and defined their aspirations. You could see the traces of a well-worn book vs one that had seen little use. A book’s position on the shelf gave clues to its relative importance. To decode a library accurately you needed to have read or have a basic understanding of each book’s content. Today this type of information is fragmented and largely opaque, revealed only to marketers and technocrats skilled at shooting cryptic algorithms through our swelling digital hay stacks.
The image above is a portion of a digital print by Phil Shaw entitled Love at First Sight. Shaw’s work compels us to ponder the digital transition we are all experiencing. He does this with wit, humor and disturbing skill. Titles like Tired of Being Tired are real book titles and appear in the British Library Catalogue. The arrangement of titles creates connections and associations that in his own words question “what we believe, what we think we believe and what we are told to believe.” Shaw continues, “I have always been troubled by the possibility that things may not be what they appear to be and certainly not what they are said to be.” Shaw’s work depicts real objects arranged in an unreal manner to reveal what he believes is the unseen reality.