DE WAAL, EDMUND. — Library of Exile.

London: The British Museum, 2020. 9780714123479. 1st edition. Created as a 'space to sit and read and be', library of exile was an installation by British artist and writer, Edmund de Waal, housing more than 2,000 books in translation, written by exiled authors. From Ovid and Dante to Marina Tsvetaeva and Judith Kerr, the library formed a record of repression while celebrating the response of the displaced. The external walls of the library were painted with liquid porcelain into which de Waal had inscribed the names of the great lost libraries of the world – from Nineveh in sixth-century BC Assyria to those recently lost in Tripoli and Mosul. 23cms x 16.5cms x 1cm. Pp.80, many colour photos + occasional black & white illustrations throughout. Grey cloth, colour photo insert to front board. Scarce. VG.** The installation has now closed, but the books within the library have now travelled safely to their final home in the University of Mosul, Iraq.