Category Archives: Europe

Weekend Links To Love

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Travel On A Sunbeam with Tillie Walden’s online sci-fi comic. Get your Surrealist Starter Kit right here. Who doesn’t need some more Gorey ? Transit maps should work for residents and tourists alike. Check out this amazing but unofficial re-imagined map for … Continue reading →

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Just So Stories

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Just So Stories for little children Rudyard Kipling London Macmillan and Co Limited First Edition September 1902 – Reprinted October 1902 I was never a big Kipling fan as a child, but I vividly remember this particular book from the … Continue reading →

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The Library Project

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Not long ago, I posted a story about British -Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s book art project at the Cleveland Library called The American Library Project. Now his companion project called The British Library  has found its way into Tate Modern’s … Continue reading →

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A Bibliophile’s Treasure

Posted on April 11, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

In a story right out of a librarian’s dream, a previously unknown volume incorporating thousands of summaries of books from over five centuries ago, many of which no longer exist, has been found in  the University Copenhagen Library, where it … Continue reading →

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Street Art Fortified

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

What a brilliant setting for the second museum dedicated to street-art in France, located in the town of Neuf-Brisach (Haut-Rhin), and inaugurated on July 7, 2018, the Musee D’Art Urbain et De Street Art (MAUSA) is situated in the 18th … Continue reading →

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Look for the Book Label

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Over the many years that I have been collecting and selling antiquarian and secondhand books, I have been intrigued by the small booksellers’ labels that were once a fixture in the book trade. These are typically diminutive, usually small rectangles … Continue reading →

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Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower Rainer Maria Rilke Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, … Continue reading →

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Wordless Novel (no fooling)

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

To follow-up on my recent post about Lynd Ward’s wordless novels, I would like to introduce the German wordless novel, Die Sonne (the Sun), created by Franz Masereel (1889-1972), and published originally in 1919. This copy was re-issued in 1926 by Kurt … Continue reading →

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Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt

Posted on March 31, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Kurt Vonnegut’s masterwork Slaughterhouse-Five. Part autobiographical, part science fiction, part satire, Slaughterhouse-Five was Vonnegut’s first bestseller and remains a revered literary classic of the 20th century. After the real-life Vonnegut … Continue reading →

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The World Turned Upside Down

Posted on March 28, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

This week, the prize-winning British sculptor Mark Wallinger unveiled a dynamic new work at the London School of Economics. The World Turned Upside Down is an enormous inverted globe reversing our normal view of the world. Wallinger’s piece forces the observer to … Continue reading →

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