Curator Reid Byers will give a talk, “Collecting the Imaginary (in which all will be revealed),” in conjunction with his Book Club exhibition, “Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished, and Fictive Books Found Only in Other Books.” The talk will deal with the curious issues surrounding the acquisition of immaterial and imaginary items for collections.
On view at the Book Club through July 21, 2025, Reid’s exhibition is part conceptual art installation and part bibliophilic entertainment. It consists of a collection of books that do not really exist, but represent an alternative library that encourages speculation on some of the major “what ifs” of bibliographic history. Included in the exhibit are a wide range of lost books that we know once actually existed but of which no examples now survive; unfinished books that were begun in some fashion but were never published; and fictive books that exist only in story and never had any physical form of existence, but of which Reid has now created physical simulacra.
A virtual presentation by Reid Byers, author, collector, curator, and president of the Baxter Society