Marshall McLuhan taught us that media environments are so pervasive that we find it difficult to do anything but unconsciously habituate ourselves to them. It is as if, since Gutenberg and the dissemination of printed matter, we have been constantly using books but are unable to really see them. But when a medium starts to lose its monopoly over us, latent qualities come to the fore. Following McLuhan’s prescient examination of reading and its contemporary transformations, this installation hopes to foreground the book in its totality as a sensuous object, with materials, patterns, and dispositions telling tales that are as in need of their own reading as any other narrative.

By and

Reg Beatty is a bookbinder and book artist living in Toronto. He teaches book design at York University and book arts at OCAD U.

Francis Mariani is a photographer and web designer living in Toronto.