K Benitha Perciyal is in the process of creating a living, breathing library. Only, these are books that one cannot read. The Chennai-based artist is carving books out of discarded Burma teak. She has a collection of over 700 of them, 400 of which are currently on display as part of the show Turning: On Field and Work at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, and 100 at the ongoing Madras Art Weekend. “This is something I started working on around nine years ago,” says Benitha, of the project she calls Xenophora, named after carrier shells that keep attaching more shells to their body during their lifetime.
Each title is based on existing ones that Benitha has either read or come across. “My brother had a small library at our home in Tiruvannamalai,” she recalls, adding that she first started reading books from its shelves. “I started reading Che Guevara when I was in Class IX,” she adds, “I read a lot of books by the New Century Book House.” They are all there with her now, in wood.
