Building of Spines

Over a week in Storyhouse Library, Quarantine artist Kate Daley hand makes a book containing a work of collective fiction. The book’s narrative is shaped by answers people in the library give to a set of questions.

Every morning and afternoon the questions change, moving through the classifications of the Dewey Decimal system – from 900: History
and Geography, to 000: Computer Science, Information and General Works.

Individual accounts are written into a work of collective fiction.

On the last day, the finished book is handed over to the library to be processed, categorised and entered into their collection.
The finished book then enters the library’s collection for future readers.
A beautiful object, carefully made, the book is an alternative portrait of the library, the people who use it and the knowledge it holds.
Building of spines is a project by Manchester-based ensemble Quarantine, known around the world for their forensic interest in
daily life.

Founded in Manchester, England in 1998, Quarantine is an ensemble of artists and producers who are united by an interest in everyday life,
working together to make ground-breaking performance and other public events, nationally and internationally. They’re internationally
acclaimed for work that is intellectually rigorous, radical in form and uniquely human.