i came across jonathan basiles library of babel a while back. this online projec
t has created in virtual form the universal library imagined by borges, containi
ng in this case, every possible page of  letters. of course, that means that it 
does indeed contain this blog post  at least the beginning of it. i am always in
terested in the different visceral experience of reading on screen in contrast t
o reading on the page the tactile and visual nature of a physical book engages w
ith the ergonomic side of the brain to trigger different memories of the text an
d its content. whenever i do get a book or an article online, i usually print it
 and bind it into a book or pamphlet to put on my bookshelves. then, i remember 
its location on the shelf and that helps me to remember its content.so it seemed
 a natural development of basiles work, for me to start imagining a partial phys
ical implementation of it. i posted a comment on the forum there, setting out an
 idea for an art installation    ...to build a fullsize complete hex.    you wou
ld build the hexagonal room. the four bookcases would be filled with actual book
s, printed with the actual texts. the spines would be labelled with the shelfmar
k.    i am thinking that you would choose a hex that contains an interesting tex
t but not indicate where in the hex that text is to be found.    visitors would 
be free to take books off the shelves and browse them.    the doorways would be 
roped off, but you could look through into the next hexes. they would also have 
shelves and books but if people are not allowed in then there would be no need t
o make the books real, they could be fakes. you could also make the subsequent h
exes just visible through the next doorways to give an impression of the continu
ing library.    i think it would be most effective if access were through a spir
al staircase in the centre of the hex.    if you were super ambitious you could 
do more than one hex joined together in the same way. just rope the doorways at 
the limits of the full implementation and surround with stage set hexes to give 
the illusion of continuity. i know that this would be an ambitious project, even
 to do one hex a hexagonal room, with two doors and four walls of shelving. each
 wall with five shelves. each shelf with  thirty two books. each book with  four
 hundred and ten pages.so todays project was rather more modest. i chose just on
e book, pretty much at random though i made the room reference much shorter than
 is normal, just to make it all a little less overwhelming. it is the twentieth 
volume on the fourth shelf of the second wall in room pgfhuiijrcovsndzdkmgbfvirs
avodmbcigepsjfd. i downloaded the text of the book, formatted and set it up, gen
erated a pdf, printed and bound it. i made it a format, sewn in signatures, with
 stiff card wraps. i chose white card to continue the minimalist theme. i made a
 spine label with the title, oifwwslljzvbqf, and an ex libris label to stick to 
the inside front page. as an art object it is very dada, kind of pointless and a
 bit foolish  when i was halfway through making it i really thought i should giv
e up. i toyed with a hardback binding