Stamp Mania

‘Stamp Mania’ – an installation that draws on my experience of working in the short loan section of a university library. It is an embellished manifestation of frustrated feelings in reaction to doing a repetitive boring job in an environment that was full of interesting books and that carried with it an aura of aspiration. The books in the installation are the intersection of my dual work identity at the time  – artist and library assistant. Viewers are invited to engage with the installation (consisting of a shelf holding ‘library books’, chair and notice) by browsing through the books. Viewers find that it is not possible to read certain pages properly as the text is obscured by labels that display patterns of stamps specifying the date that books have to be returned. The books are rendered totally useless.