In honour of the hours spent reading under blankets with a flashlight in direct disobedience of our mothers, Accepting the Possibility That I May Ruin My Eyes: Reading in Darkness was a labyrinthine library in total darkness.
The lone beam of a flashlight cutting through the haze was your only guide as you wound your way through the Maze of Knowledge. At the heart of the Maze: angels and rest.
Created by Librarians-in-residence Darren O'Donnell, Lillian Chan, Petrina Ng and Danielle Williams as part of The Toronto Free Library, curated by Maiko Tanaka and Sarah Todd at the The Toronto Free Gallery, 1277 Bloor West, Toronto.
From a Walrus blog by Holly Jean Buck: "for once, this week, I don't feel complete despair about art. O'Donnell's book, and words, are credible because he's actually out there engaging. It is not theory and ideals but experience that shapes this work: phrases about "short-circuiting familiar social networks and formations to create something unexpected," or "an artistic civic engagement that uses the city as raw material," take on genuine meaning when you've just been pulled over and engaged by chance. Furthermore, O'Donnell is honest, prescient, and refreshingly cutting about the landscape we are in: "the world is a collapsing shit factory." At the same time, the possibilities feel endless."
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