Hayward Gallery

The Decayed Book

04 - 06 Sep 2009

THE DECAYED BOOK

Friday 4 September 2009 - Sunday 6 September 2009 , 10am - Close

‘I spend my life making books, for the next few months I shall be making books to be destroyed.’

Book artist Mark Cockram, in collaboration with Amoret Whitaker at the Natural History Museum, exhibits the remains of books made using traditional materials and adhesives and have been designed to be digested by hide beetles, Dermestes maculatus, in order to turn it into a sculptural object in a piece of Entomological Etymology. This is accompanied by a documentary explaining the process. The artist also places a book inside a bee hive to see what the bees make of it. Come and discover what it’s all about.