Reanimation Library: Joshua Tree Branch

High Desert Test Sites is thrilled to bring an iteration of the Reanimation Library out west!

The Reanimation Library is a small, independent public library based in Brooklyn, New York. It is a collection of books that have fallen out of routine circulation and have been acquired for their visual content–the images in the books often illustrate now-defunct ways humans understand ourselves and our place in the world. Outdated and discarded, these works have been culled from thrift shops, library sales, swap meets, and throw-away piles, and given new life as a resource for artists, writers, cultural archaeologists, and other interested parties.

The Joshua Tree Branch of the Reanimation Library will contain a collection of books that has been gathered from sources in the local community. A hybrid space, it will function as a library and a studio workspace. Though the library will be non-circulating, a free scanner and photocopier will allow visitors to take away resource material for their own purposes. The Reanimation Library believes that the originally intended use for a book is not its only use, and encourages visitors to find–and share–their own uses for the books in its collection. Our intention is to present a fertile environment for patrons to engage with the work of the past in creative, recombinant ways.

The Library will be open to the public during regular HDTS HQ hours, and by appointment. In addition to providing books as creative resource material, the Joshua Tree Branch will include special programming, including an Opening Talk with Reanimation Library Founder Andrew Beccone, Reinterpretation Workshops with Katie Bachler, and a showcase of new works and projects generated from the Joshua Tree Branch by Brian Bosworth, Frederick Fulmer, Coco Hall, Scott Pinkmountain, Stephanie Smith, Julie Tolentino, Women, and Patrick Woody.