Book Space is a participatory installation by Elín Hansdóttir that has been traveling between public libraries across Europe since 2005. At the heart of the project are 2,000 blank books inserted into library collections—books that invite visitors not to read, but to write, draw, or contribute in any way they choose.

By placing these unwritten volumes into the everyday circulation of libraries, Hansdóttir transforms passive spaces of knowledge consumption into active, evolving archives of personal reflection. Visitors are encouraged to inscribe their thoughts, stories, sketches, or spontaneous visual and textual gestures directly into the pages, turning each book into a layered, communal manuscript shaped over time by many hands.

Book Space challenges conventional notions of authorship, authority, and permanence in both literature and art. The work blurs the line between reader and writer, viewer and participant, emphasizing the quiet power of individual contributions within shared systems of knowledge. The tactile experience of handling paper—its texture, weight, and physicality—creates a contrast to the intangible, digital nature of contemporary communication. In an era dominated by screens, these books offer a sensory return to a slower, more deliberate mode of interaction.

This gesture of open authorship and collective memory aligns with Hansdóttir’s broader practice, which often explores perception, interaction, and the reconfiguration of institutional or spatial boundaries. As each book accumulates diverse voices and marks, the project becomes a kind of distributed, living artwork—intimate and democratic, poetic and unpredictable.

Installed in public libraries in Iceland, Germany, Spain, and Belgium, as well as in libraries within a prison and a rehabilitation center, Book Space subtly reimagines the role of libraries in contemporary culture. Rather than serving solely as repositories of fixed information, these spaces become dynamic arenas for exchange, creativity, and presence, where meaning is continuously shaped by those who pass through.