Visual Art & Interview: Douglas Coupland’s 3D library
Warren Haas, Peak Staff
Douglas Coupland’s Fifty Books I Have Read More Than Once runs until October 20 at the SFU Gallery, AQ 3004.
Douglas Coupland holds a unique place in literature, having established himself through both fiction that explores modern life (Generation X, All Families Are Psychotic) and non-fiction that explores the Canadian identity (Terry, Souvenir of Canada). Since 2001 he has also been recognised for his visual art — sometimes connected to this literary work, and sometimes stemming from his education at Emily Carr. Having read several of his books (only one of them more than once) in high school but none of them since graduating, it was with slight reluctance and embarrassment that I deemed myself capable of interviewing Coupland about his latest art piece that encompasses sculptural techniques with a literary basis.
What I discovered is that the reclusive Coupland is willing to give a public viewing of 50 books that he has read more than once simply because he is interested in establishing a dialogue about the influence and importance of literature on the individual.
He has literally torn the covers off of books and paired them with wooden blocks varying in size and length, depending on how much influence the book has had on him in his life. The result is a mass of disparate planes that alter your view of the entire structure as you walk around it. This seemingly random conjunction of his most oft-used reading material is actually the result of a deliberate attempt on Coupland’s part to rid himself of excess books in his library. “What happens as you get older is that you get very realistic about the books that you have in your collection,” he says while remembering how he first conceived the idea. “There [are] the books you keep out to impress people, the books you want to read but never have and never will, the books you hated, where you look and think, ‘Why am I keeping it?’ You get rid of all those books.”
A year-old “moment of clarity” is responsible not only for the physical manifestation of his list that one can now browse and compare to one’s own library, but also a dilution of all the books Coupland owned and read, seemingly, only once. “I had maybe at the end of [the process] one third of my books left,” he said, “but I felt really good about the third that remained.” So while viewing this show can make one want to acquire more books, it could also get one re-evaluating one’s own personal libraries — what is worth keeping and what isn’t.
In describing how he came to envision the rough outline for what the sculptures would look like, he says, “If you can be honest with yourself, then your library becomes a very honest landscape.” After pausing to examine his work, he adds, “Walking around this and looking at this is kind of what I feel like in my head.”
A journey into Douglas Coupland’s brain could be anything from a hilarious to a scarring experience, but when looking at how he has orchestrated the arrangement of his sculptures, the biting and playful humour that makes his writing so enjoyable is quite apparent. You have to get down on your hands and knees to see some of the book covers, while others are only visible to people who are pushing 6’9”.
Although he acknowledges that this show does allow others to see what kind of books one of Canada’s more renowned authors reads, he is not interested in having people associate his favourite books with his status as anything other than an individual. His behaviour during the show’s opening on Saturday, September 8 confirmed this, as he spent most of his time in a secluded corner of the gallery and the rest literally running out and away from the gallery, and then coming back. Coupland appeared intent to watch people discuss his artistic work and engage in debate about the particular books he had selected, and whether they were deserving of being read more than once — perhaps even causing people to talk about why they hadn’t re-read books they truly enjoyed the first time.
He believes having a candid dialogue about the books one has read multiple times provides new social outlooks. “If you’re honest about the books that you like, I think that if you find someone who is mutually honest, there [are] a lot of doors that you can open up that I think would be closed,” he says to emphasise his story about two people who met at a book signing of his in the fiction section of a Barnes & Noble, and who were married in that same section of the store one year later.
Given that his installation is located at a university, Coupland notes the importance of dispelling the notion of re-reading books students think they are expected to like. “A lot of people are still trying to mentally impress their 400 Lit teacher,” he says. “Like, ‘Finnegan’s Wake, it was so good, I think I’ll re-read it again and again and again.’ That sort of fades away.” While he says the books featured in this show could be taken as reading suggestions, he’s hesitant for them to be thought of as prescribed reading — in fact, he thinks the more interesting books one reads are usually not assigned. “I don’t think there’s one book on here that was ever on a curriculum,” he says. “The books that you find here have found me.” Whether it was his intention or not, seeing this show is an ideal example of how one goes about finding new, diverse literature that is worth reading, hopefully, more than once.