Books published by the Underground Library have a unique HEIRLOOM style of distribution. Books are given out to Members of the Library, who are asked to SIGN their name by the Due Date and PASS the book to someone who they think will like it.
Creating an alternative to the internet-encouraged “get anything, anytime” impulse, the group hopes to recapture a personal, valuable experience with artwork by distributing new projects along a community circuit – whereby books are passed along based on close relationships rather than wide-scale marketing strategies.
Each Heirloom book carries a trail of signatures, and becomes a collaborative space wherein an individual experience can be understood as shared amongst a larger whole. A value placed on physical objects uses self-distribution to encourage face-to-face interaction, and empowers individuals as arbiters of work they believe in, with considerable hand in the trajectory it travels. Readers become distributers. And artwork gains a focused platform, worlds away from your Facebook account.
In addition to this method of circulation, a limited edition of KEEPSAKE books can be obtained from the Underground Library depending on level of Membership or simply by purchase.