Mobile Library of Wooden Books series

The artist’s book occupies a special place in the practice of sculptor and poet Igor Ioganson. He organized his first actions and exhibitions combining text and visual forms in the 1990s together with Marina Perchikhina at Spider & Mouse Gallery, of which they were the founders.

The book‑mobiles A Little Wind Blew, Tablets, and First Printing Press are objects in which poetry “transgressed into sculpture, into the real space,” returning to the surface of the page as a visual image. In those years, as the publisher MyZh, Spider & Mouse Gallery produced around 70 small‑format books with texts and drawings by Ioganson.

In 2010, the series Mobile Library of Wooden Books appeared, comprising 30 books made from larch offcuts from a house built to a design by Perchikhina in the village of Kriushkino by Pleshcheevo Lake, an important place for Ioganson.

A poetic phrase is carved into each book; laconic, aphoristic, sometimes moving from one line to another: “I give you my hand and my heart / my hand is not free / there’s a bucket in it;” “In the dark / tomatoes / ripen;” Art / should not / grunt;” “I’m fed up / with being a part/ knowing / that there is no whole;” “Right at the entrance to heaven / there’s a comma / I have no idea / where it’s from and why.” According to the artist, these texts appeared spontaneously from conversations, dreams, and observations. Nothing was specially thought up.