Playful Book Spine Poetry by Nina Katchadourian

By Emily Temple

March 11, 2013

Nina Katchadourian has been working on her Sorted Books project for over 20 years, rummaging through libraries and personal collections, and organizing the books she finds into legible clusters, which may come out funny, poignant, or even beautiful. “The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves,” she writes, “shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library’s focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library’s holdings.” Earlier this month, selections from Katchadourian’s project were published by Chronicle Books in a volume entitled Sorted Books , filled with assembled literary poetry and enough deliciously destroyed spines to satisfy any visually hungry book nerd. After the jump, check out a few of our favorites from the book, and if you’re intrigued, head here to learn more.

Photo Credit: Nina Katchadourian/Chronicle Books