THE BOOK AS SIGNIFIER IN JOHN LATHAM'S WORK

Books are much more than words on printed paper in John Latham's work. Submitted to various demolishing processes, books come to signify the compounding of scientific, philosophical, political and religious ideas that articulate the world we live in, and by extension, our selves.

Latham Cluster 11 (1992)

Film Star (1960)

The Burial of Count Orgaz (1958)

Five Sisters Bing (1976)

God is Great 1 (1989)

Though dismissed by some critics as anarchic, Latham's use of books helps us reflect on the way culture has shaped and framed existence and how this frame can be changed by submitting meaning to what he calls an "event", an elusive present: life at its purest, which can neither be framed or shaped by culture, but which nevertheless guarantees questioning and change.

Art and Culture (1966-69)

Art and Culture was Latham's most radical subversion of the idea of books and artworks as dead objects. This piece is a materialozation of art as action: In 1966, Latham borrowed a copy of Clement Greenberg's Art and Culture — a work that held something of a cult status at that time — from the library of Saint Martin's School of Art, where Latham was employed as a part-time lecturer. At a party Latham invited students to chew pages from the book, and then distilled the resulting pulp into a clear liquid. This process took several months, and Latham began to receive letters from the library demanding its return. Latham presented a vial of the fermented book-pulp to the library, but this was rejected and his teaching contract was not renewed. The vial and correspondence became an artwork of its own, displayed in a leather case; the piece is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

For more detailed information, read an 1987 interview to Latham, "Books for Burning" here:

http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Lisson-Gallery-John-Latham-John-A-Walker-2

LITERARY CAFES II

Three other literary cafes:

CAFÉ LATINO in Ourense

An emblematic cafe at the heart of the old town that for more than 25 years has hosted concerts and art exhibitions. An ideal place to have a literary chat!

CAFÉ DERBY in Santiago de Compostela

Opened in 1929, this modernist cafe used to have renowned writers among its clients such as Valle Inclán, Dieste and Díaz Pardo.

CAFÉ MAJESTIC in Porto

Another treasury cafe. Opened in 1921, it was the first Portuguese cafe that admitted women as clients!

LITERARY CAFES

Do you like going to places with a literary background? I LOOOOVE it! Some examples that I absolutely loved... the one above, in New York, The Cornelia Street Cafe, an artists' café. Within a month of its opening, there were poetry readings and music performances; and then a tiny play written for the café; and fiction writers; and Eskimo poetry; and puppeteers; and a living portrait of James Joyce; and the Four Quartets and the entire Iliad; and mime shows on the street outside the café; and comedians; and fairy tales and storytellers and Punch and Judy shows.Nowadays, it hosts more than 300 events a year. And food is delish!

Another fave, The Café Louvre in Prague. Frequented by Einstein or Kafka.Today, you can still ascend the spacious staircase with its walls clad in marble with its Secessionist iron handrail, decorated with stylish mistletoe twigs, to the café on the first floor.

There, visitors used to be welcomed by "the great world’s beauty, emphasized by impressive electric globes” and a "black man in a tailcoat". 

Coffee and cakes are great and, you know what? They still provide notepads and paper in case the muse brings your inspiration along.

What about you all? Any places you'd recommend?