WITHDRAWN (2014)
In 2014 I began to collect books that pertained to my research into the gendered space of the ship and found that many of the books on these women’s maritime histories had been withdrawn. I researched various library websites to ascertain their policy for the removal of books from their collections in order to understand how, or why, many of the books I had collected had been withdrawn or discarded.
I found the following text from on a UK University Library website:
To WITHDRAW (DISCARD or CANCEL) from the library stock items for which there is no reasonable justification for retention. Old and superseded texts can be misleading or worthless and unsought material can obstruct the search for relevant items. Stock editing is also necessary to make room for new material as the Library's collections expand within finite accommodation.
I could not reconcile the above explanation for the removal of the books that I now held in my collection. I wondered how I could reinsert them back into circulation or at least highlight their absence. I scanned each of the book cover and the inside front page that included the name of the library and the stamp of withdrawal. The key purpose of this book/artwork was to send a copy of WITHDRAWN back to each of the libraries from where the books had originally been removed from, thus reinserting their presence of these discarded narratives.
