Text and photos: Sebastián Krieger
French translation: Juliana Zerda
Our little orange box represents the idea of transformation, overcoming adversity and resilience in the face of destruction. And just like Nun’s Island, it hosts a multiplicity of languages and stories that share not only a small space but also the yearning for a better life.
In our current age of electronic books, one would think that (just as happened with clay tablets and papyrus), paper books and the buildings that house them are tending to disappear. However, it turns out that the opposite is true. And one of the expressions of libraries with the greatest multiplication is also one of the most elementary: the book box.
The concept of « the box » had already been popular for decades in youth hostels around the world: a shelf from which guests borrowed a book to read during their stay. If someone wanted to take it away, he could do so on the condition to leave another one in exchange. However, the history of the original public bookcases is relatively recent.
Image 3: The little bookstore has risen from the ashes, because ultimately, book exchange libraries are an inspiring reminder that the magic of reading can bring people together and enrich their lives in meaningful ways. Stronger, with more books and with more languages, building bridges in our community. It is possible that it will disappear again, in fact, several scars are already visible, but it doesn't matter, because it will always be reborn.
Between 1990 and 1991 the artistic duo Michael Clegg (born 1957 in Dublin) and Martin Guttmann (born 1957 in Jerusalem) presented their installation Offene Bibliothek (German for « Open Library ») in the Austrian city of Graz. It was a micro-library with books always ready to read, without controls or the supervision of a librarian, a piece of furniture with books available without any criteria. The simple idea became popular and in a very short time spread first to Germany and then to the rest of Europe. In America, the proposal grew thanks to Todd Boll (born 1956 in Wisconsin, died 2018), an enthusiast who built his first micro-library with the wood of an old garage door. Today his foundation, called Little Free Library, is a non-profit organization that houses some 100,000 micro-bookstores in nearly one hundred countries. In Montreal, the first four officially appeared in 2013 in Rosemont and today they are all over the city; it is impossible to know their exact number, as one would have to include many other initiatives, such as Croque Livres, specialized in children’s books.
