Category Archives: First and Last Lines

Nabokov, Vladimir Lolita (1955) ICI Shelf: Fiction First Line: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.” Last Line: “And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.” ICI History: First Line,Today at the ICI-Twitter … Continue reading →

Ades, Dawn; Art in Latin America: The Modern Era, 1820-1980 (1989) ICI Shelf: Americas First Line: “The exhibition that this book accompanies was conceived with the aim of presenting to a European audience the relatively unknown art of Latin America … Continue reading →

Alle, Mark; Jason Bown and Liz Glynn, eds.; MACHINE PROJECT: A Field Guide to the Los Angeles Museum of Art (2009) ICI Shelf: Museums First Line: “Etymologically speaking, “machine” is any means of doing something.” Last Line: “Please give me an Ambient Haircut.” … Continue reading →

Bantock, Nick; The Museum at Purgatory (1999) ICI Shelf: Museums First Line: “I met Marie Louise Gornier the other day, she’d only been dead for a week or so.” Last Line:“Here, at this mid point, each of us dismantles our past and … Continue reading →

Bataille, George (translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall); The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge (2001) ICI Shelf: Monkey Head First Line: “It is a banality to claim that there is a fundamental difficulty in human communication.” Last Line: “ready to pray” ICI History: First … Continue reading →

Olalquiaga, Celeste; The Artificial Kingdom: A Treasury of the Kitsch Experience (1998) ICI Shelf: Museology First Line: “Meet Rodney, king of the hermit crabs.” Last Line: “In Rodney’s eyes I have been able to gaze into myself as never before, and in this … Continue reading →

Flaherty, Thomas H., ed.; Library of Curious and Unusual Facts: Hoaxes and Deceptions (1991) ICI Shelf: Ptolemy First Line: “Like an echo in the song of civilization, fakes have attended every great artistic achievement” Last Line: “Evidence of this, according to Washington University … Continue reading →

Elkins, James; What Heaven Looks Like: Comments on a Strange Wordless Books (2017) ICI Shelf: Books to Inspire First Line: “A woman sits down to her secret work.” Last Line: “And it is especially wonderful that even when her book is seen again, … Continue reading →

Barnett, Walter; Homosexuality and the Bible: An Interpretation (1979) ICI Shelf: Religion First Line: “Most Christians are still uneasy about homosexuality.” Last Line: “As long as heterosexual Christians keep on asserting that they know all there is to know about God’s will on … Continue reading →