Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Douglas Coupland: Fifty Books I Have Read More Than Once

September 8 – October 20, 2007
SFU Gallery

For this exhibition, Douglas Coupland has created a sculptural model that visually manifests the influence that various books have had on his artistic and literary development.

Coupland selected fifty books he has read more than once—a process that acknowledges the infinite number of meanings one can infer from any given text or book. The books are represented by their covers, which are glued onto wooden blocks. The blocks vary in height in relation to how influential each book has been in Coupland's life. Coupland then arranged the blocks in a chart-like form according to the time in his life that he read each book.

Fifty Books I Have Read More Than Once is an architectonic model of one artist/writer's mind and soul. The work also proposes a methodology that would allow viewers to visualize the structure of their own bibliographic histories—no two of which are ever identical.

Curated by Bill Jeffries.

Events

Opening Reception
Saturday, September 8, 2007, 3–5pm

This show is concurrent with the exhibition R.B. Kitaj - In Our Time: Covers for a Small Library After the Life for the Most Part, also at the SFU Gallery, Burnaby campus.