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Ex Libris South Africa

Candice Breitz
Ex Libris South Africa, 2009
47 second hand books on wooden shelf
Work: 26 x 100 x 19 cm

The books photographed for Candice Breitz’s Ex Libris South Africa were all found by the artist on the same dusty and neglected shelf within Bikini Beach Books, Gordon’s Bay (South Africa), during a single book-browsing session in January 2009. Collectively they catalogue a diverse range of anxieties, fears, hopes and expectations pertaining to life in South Africa over nearly a century. The shelf of books has hung in the artist’s studio since 2009 and is being shared in a public context for the first time.