WHAT THEY SAY: Tenderpixel is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of the illustration collective INK. The collaborative Invisible Library project will transform the gallery space into an imaginary library filled with books that have been alluded to in novels, but have never actually existed...until now. The collaboration continues throughout the exhibition as gallery attendees and workshop participants are invited to temporarily 'sign out' these library books and carry on writing the developing narratives within. Thus by the close of the exhibition, the once blank pages of each book will be enlivened with imaginative poly-vocal stories.

WHAT WE SAY: For one month only, INK Illustration transforms the Tenderpixel Gallery into the refuge of book lovers. If you are fascinated, touched or thrilled by Anton Chekhov’s Seagull, Italo Calvino’s If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller, Roberto Bolano’s 2666, etc., you will find at INK Illustration’s Invisible Library—not those books—but the books that are mentioned in them. Yes, this is the book-within-a-book delight. Stacked on three two-dimensioned, hand-painted shelves, forty imaginary books are given partial material existence—lovely covers with colour pencil effects—but their pages are blank. This brings us to the fun, novel part. We can check out those empty books and write something in them! At the moment, we are eyeing to make ourselves heard in Boris Alekseyevivh Trigorin’s Days and Nights, a book referred to by Chekhov. Stay tuned, everyone!

VERDICT: If you’re not that interested in the exhibition, we think you’ll be much more intrigued to see what we’ll put in one of those books!

Words: Poonperm Paitayawat
Image: Courtesy of Tenderpixel Gallery