Printed large enough to pass as an actual library, these images point to the gradual loss of paper books, specially those that inhabited homes and fostered learning, dreaming, escapes. These surface only libraries are now commodities of the art world, that can be purchased according to themes –art, film, music, fashion- and literally reproduce both the classic cataloguing systems of libraries, as well as the fantasies and desires of their owners, collapsing the distance between public and private libraries. Yet these images are composites, collages in Grossman’s own words. The books in every image have never quite been placed in that way except in the virtual space of his computer. Grossman photographs some of the books in bookstores he visits, others he finds floating in the sea of Internet images. He builds collections, and then chooses from his own image banks. When looked at from a close distance, you can see that the each book spine has a distinct image quality, revealing their different provenance, their composite or collage character.

Courtesy of Sponder Gallery