Library Anatomy - The Karásek's Gallery Library 1925–1951

The collector Jiří Karásek from Lvovice has been so far presented to public primarily by several exhibitions of his art collections. The anatomy metaphor comparing the library of Karásek’s gallery to a human body and which was chosen for the current presentation, enables us to use a book as a variously working medium, not just as an aesthetical object or a literary content bearer. The exhibition presents the library through „anatomical“ cuts as a living organism and shows its individual organs. The Karásek’s library itself becomes the main showpiece in an inventive installation of Zbyněk Baladrán who used creatively the ground plan dispositions of Letohrádek Hvězda (Star Summer Pavilion). The Library Anatomy exhibition presents results of a research into the Karásek’s gallery library which was carried out in the library of Památník národního písemnictví (the Museum of Czech Literature) from 2007 to 2011 within the Grant Agency ČR project. A collective monograph Knihovna Karáskovy galerie a její světy (The Karásek’s Gallery Library and its Worlds) was published within the exhibition in a co-operation with Arbor vitae publisher.