Café Curio: Artists' Book Club

Chosen texts are:
Camps , A guide to 21st Century Space, Charlie Hailey, MIT Press 2009
In Camps, Charlie Hailey examines the space and idea of camp as a defining dimension of 21st-century life. The ubiquity and diversity of camps calls for a guidebook. This is what Hailey offers, but it is no ordinary one. Not only does he establish a typology of camps, but he also embeds within his narrative a key to camp ideology. Thus we see how camp spaces are informed by politics and transform the ways we think about and make built environments.

Concrete Island, JG Ballard, Harper Perennial, 2008
A chilling novel about our modern world, from the author of 'Empire of the Sun' and 'Crash'. Robert Maitland, a 35 year-old architect, is driving home from his London offices when a blow-out sends his speeding Jaguar hurtling out of control. Smashing through a temporary barrier he finds himself, dazed and disorientated, on a traffic island below three converging motorways. But when he tries to climb the embankment or flag-down a passing car for help it proves impossible – and he finds himself imprisoned on the concrete island. In this twisted version of 'Robinson Crusoe', Maitland must learn to survive – using only what he can find in his crashed car. As in all Ballard's best work 'Concrete Island' provides an unnerving study of our modern lives and world.

Remainder, Tom McCarthy, Alma Books, 2007
‘An intelligent and absurd satire on consumer culture’ – The Times