Martha Rosler Library
2005–08


When Rosler's sizable collection of books threatened to overwhelm her studio and home, she lent a portion of it, some seven thousand volumes, to the public. It was first installed as a reading room in New York at the e-flux storefront space and has traveled to seven cities in Europe and the United States. Books did not circulate but could be photocopied onsite. Rosler's books include works of art history, poetry, travel, science fiction, mysteries, children's books, political and social theory, photograph albums, posters, postcards, magazines, dictionaries, maps, and newspaper clippings. In making these materials public, Rosler erodes the wall between public and private, domestic and political, the analytical and the activist. She suggests that this is the background needed not only for informed art production but for engaged citizenship.

The Martha Rosler Library was first shown at e-flux storefront, New York, before traveling to: Kunstverein, Frankfurt; New International Cultural Center (NICC) and MUHKA Museum for Contemporary Art, Antwerp; unitednationsplaza, Berlin; Stills Centre, Edinburgh; Liverpool School of Art and Design, John Moores University; Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris; and the Herter Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst