Two Hundred and Forty-three Postcards in Real Colour.
It was Georges Perec’s birthday on 7th March, he would have been 92 years ago, but died just short of his 45th birthday in 1982.
Good news – the project has been invited to return to the Bower Ashton library of the University of the West of England, Bristol, in September. I’ll post dates as soon as they are confirmed. It will be a wonderful chance to enjoy them all close up, the images in the book and on posters were good but the actual cards are even better. Worth a trip to Bristol and likely the last chance to see them before they retire to a comfortable album for a while.
The postcards have been in ten exhibitions so far.
University of the West of England, Bower Ashton Library, Bristol, 2021
University of Southampton, Winchester School of Art, 2021
Bath Spa University, The Street Gallery, 2022
Bristol Artists’ Book Fair BABE at Bower Ashton, 2022
Cardiff University, Special Collections Library, 2022 – 2023
Architecture and Design Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey, 2022
University of Puget Sound, Collins Memorial Library, Washington, USA, 2022
University of Essex, Special Collections Library, Colchester, 2023
Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Cyprus, 2023
Waverley Library, Sydney, Australia, 2023
The modular format of the work has meant that it can be reconfigured to fit the available space, each venue had a different presentation, looking fresh each time. The postcards themselves! sent ‘home’ to UWE a postcard from each of their travels, (an idea suggested by Shaun Oaten of the Bower Ashton library in a very Perec twist) and those cards and others inspired by the project will also be on show in September.
Postcards for Perec. The catalogue of the project has full colour illustrations of every postcard, and a foreword by Philip Terry, editor of The Penguin Book of Oulipo. Essays in English and French by Mireille Ribière explain Perec’s fascinating structure behind the messages. The book is held in the National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Newberry Library, Chicago, USA.
ISBN 978-1-906501-21-1. £20 +p&p, available via the contact page.
Cropped images of the postcards and the exhibitions can be enjoyed on Instagram, @postcards_for_perec. Happy Birthday Georges!
Linda Parr 