Published to accompany the exhibition Dear Reader at Idea Store Whitechapel, 14 March – 11 May 2014. The exhibition consisted of new and existing works by eleven artists Book Works has published including: Jeremy Deller, Ruth Ewan, Karl Holmqvist, Mike Nelson, Ahmet Öğüt, Olivia Plender, Laure Prouvost, Clunie Reid, Slavs and Tatars, Mark Titchner and Emily Wardill.

Each artist has compiled a list of books and publications of significance to their practice: revealing different methodologies, and idiosyncratic or irreverent ways of researching and gaining knowledge. The selection ranges from Shelley’s Frankenstein to Hentai Manga, Independent Spirits: Spiritualism and English Plebeians 1850-1910 by Logie Barrow to Sturtevant: The Razzle Dazzle of Thinking, Dark Actors: The Life and Death of Dr David Kelly to Burrough’s Cities of the Red Night. For the exhibition Dear Reader Book Works installed a structure with posters and wallpapers to present this temporary collection in the fourth-floor gallery and reading room of the Idea Store library, all the books are now part of the central library system.

A set of bookmarks commissioned by the participating artists is also available. Both this reader and the bookmarks were designed by ARPA (A Research Projects Agency).

Dear Reader at Idea Store Whitechapel was curated by Jane Rolo and Camilla Wills, Book Works with Rugina Mukid, Idea Store.

This project is generously supported by the Idea Store and Grants for the Arts Libraries Fund, Arts Council England.