A One Day Bookshop for Experimental Literature

A fundraising event for Shandy Hall, curated by information as material

Saturday 27 October 2007, 10am-5pm.

The gallery of The Laurence Sterne Museum at Shandy Hall, Coxwold, was transformed into a bookshop and reading space by information as material for one day. In conjunction, a cycle of public readings by Kenneth Goldsmith, Alan Halsey, Ira Lightman, Hester Reeve, and Nick Thurston took place in the rooms of Laurence Sterne’s former residence; plus, the second premiere screening of the film sucking on words was held at Coxwold village hall.

All the stock for the shop was donated by sympathetic artists and publishers from around the world, and was made available relatively cheaply only on that day and from the shop site. The money from all the sales went directly to the museum’s fundraising programme. The event was planned to draw people to the museum, engage them in its collection and generate funds for the re-development of the Hall’s roof. The museum is small, under-financed and geographically isolated but dedicated to a progressive approach to understanding the legacy of the eighteenth century English writer Laurence Sterne (1713-68), whose best known work is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. All the unsold stock went into the museum’s library collection. The event came the day after the world premiere of the film sucking on words, which was hosted by the British Library, London.