Absent Titles

No library can ever be complete. Created during my residency at the Centre des livres d’artiste (CDLA), these three works reflect on what remains absent from a collection: books that are missing, inaccessible, or beyond reach. Two titles refer to rare publications that are difficult to source, while the third originates from my own library. Taking the form of books already present elsewhere, their contents remain absent. In different ways, each title circles around questions of mortality, disappearance, and what is left behind. Together, the works consider the gaps that shape every archive. Each contains an ex libris depicting an empty shelf.

1-2
Artist: Robert Filliou
Title: Je meurs trop
Publisher: Lebeer Hossmann Éditeurs, Brussels and Hamburg
Year: 1977
Method: Brick multiple with offset-printed labels and transfer-type additions.
Size: 220 × 110 × 30 mm
Edition: 50 copies

3-5
Artist: Gina Pane
Title: Moments de silence I: recueillis en 8 documents : novembre 1969–octobre 1970
Publisher: Galleria LP 220, Turin
Year: 1970
Method: Artist’s book illustrated with eight original black-and-white photographic prints (24 × 36 mm), mounted onto the page and captioned in facsimile handwriting.
Pages: 10
Size: 144 × 228 mm
Edition: 100 copies

5-8
Artist: Aaron Krach
Title: The author of this book committed suicide
Publisher: @ND, New York
Year: 2024
Method: Softcover, perfect bound, digitally printed.
Pages: 176
Size: 264 × 200 mm
Edition: 500 copies

Year: 2026
Edition of 3