Water Library

by Basia Irland

Water Library consists of nine interconnected sections focusing on projects that artist Basia Irland has created over the last thirty years in Africa, Canada, Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, and the United States. Through her work, Irland offers a creative understanding of water while examining how communities of people, plants, and animals rely on this vital element. With a humanistic and artistic approach anchored in science, Water Library is a tribute to ecology expressed through art. Irland's art projects explore practical ways to conserve water through rain harvesting systems, how to foster dialogue and cooperation along the entire length of a river, and the dangerous impact of waterborne diseases on human health. By offering thought-provoking information, presented poetically, Water Library inspires in readers a broader appreciation of water's importance in their everyday lives.
"[Basia Irland] harbors a visceral affinity with rivers and with our water-dominated planet as a whole, with its similarities to our own bodies of water, from tears to lowly piss to the breaking of waters at birth. Process, work in time, is all-important. Irland also acknowledges the significance of migration, of the 'body in motion.' Some of her sculptures are portable, companions on the journey."--Lucy R. Lippard, art and cultural critic

Genres: Ecology, Art, Nature

248 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2007

Reviews

[Juliette · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was forced to read this book this semester because I am taking a class with the woman who wrote it. I always have issues with professors who require students to read their book as part of the class. My problem with this book is that it delves too much into her hippy-dippy privileged life (eating scones on the banks of the Thames or canoeing down the Rio Grande, drinking tequila and wine whilst howling at the full moon) and not enough about her art. There should be less (rather dull) writing by other artists, art historians, and critics about Basia and more photos of her art. This book is really quite smug and smitten with Basia, which is awkward, in that it's about her. The best way to get people to care more about water issues isn't to boast about world travels while people sing your praises, it's to show the way people use and interact with water globally.