See Old Library Books Come to Life in Kerry Mansfield’s Expired Series

Her Site: http://www.kerrymansfield.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=40025&Akey=J83G789M

Mansfield was inspired to start her project after spotting an old library checkout card inside a book she found at Goodwill, which made her nostalgic for the experience of libraries before books and card catalogues were digitized. She then spent more than two years collecting at least 160 former library books she found through nonprofits, eBay, libraries, garage sales and even individual submissions. They are all “books that have lived in at least one public library, often many more,” she said. “Once they are too abused or out of date they’re written off as ‘withdrawn’, ‘removed’, ‘expired’, and taken out of circulation…. The unlucky ones get recycled back into pulp.”

From See Old Library Books Come to Life in Kerry Mansfield’s Expired Series | TIME