Barthes, Roland; Howard, Richard, trans. Mourning Diary: October 26, 19977—September 15, 1979; (2010) FIRST LINE: “First wedding night. But first mourning night”? LAST LINE: “Not very happy. It was an inheritance.” ICI SHELF: Current Book Project Accession #: ICI-02580 ICI HISTORY: Barthes’ Tear (2010-2014); First … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Mourning Diary
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed.; Monster Theory: Reading Culture (1996) FIRST LINE: “We live in a time of monsters.” LAST LINE: “The fear of the family is its founding romance: Spielberg rightly protects his children from his incestuous creation.” ICI SHELF: Body ICI HISTORY: First Line: … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Monster Theory
Foucault, Michel (trans. Alan Sheridan); Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1977) ICI Shelf: Philosophy Last Line: [on Panopticism] “Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?” ICI History: Today at the ICI — Twitter Feed (10-17-19) … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: The Birth of the Prison
Dyer, Richard White (1997) FIRST LINE: “White people are not literally or symbolically white, yet they are called white.” LAST LINE: “The combination of extreme whiteness with plain, unwhite whiteness means that white people can both lay claim to the spirit that aspires to the … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: White
Crimp, Douglas (1944-2019) On the Museum’s Ruins (1993) FIRST LINE: “From the parochial perspective of the late-1970s art world, photography appeared as a watershed.” (From “The Postmodern Museum) “Knowing full well that postmodern architecture is loaded with historical gimmicks, sly references, visual puns, I will … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: On the Museum’s Ruins
Allen, Roberta; The Daughter (1992) ICI Shelf: Fiction First Line: “A group of girls and boys play by the pool; their cries and shouts and laughter echo under the high glass dome.” Last Line: “But she is still giddy, dancing, gliding over the muddy terrain … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: The Daughter
Wright, Stephen; Towards a Lexicon of Usership (2013) ICI Shelf: Language First Line: “Art and art related practices that are oriented towards usership rather than spectatorship are characterised more than anything else by their scale of operations: they operate on the 1:1 scale.” Last Line: … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Towards a Lexicon of Usership
Camille, Micheal; Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (1992) ICI Shelf: Books about books First Line: “I could begin, like St Bernard, by asking what do they all mean, those lascivious apes, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Image on the Edge
Raspe, Rudolf Erich; Baron Munchausen’s Travels: The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1907) ICI Shelf: Trotter First Line: “Why is it that scamps and scoundrels are so often clever and generally interesting, whilst the average human being is so often dull and generally … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: Baron Munchausen’s Travels
Solomon, Barbara Miller; In the Company of Educated Women: a history of women and higher education in America (1985) ICI Shelf: Trotter First Line: “Education, over the last two hundred years, has profoundly changed the contours of women’s lives in America.” Last Line: “The means … Continue readingLIBRARY SHELF: In the Company of Educated Women