Museum Bhavan Singh, Dayanita Photography

First Edition, 2017. 298 pages. Nine softcover accordion fold books in stiff wrappers and one saddle stitched volume measuring 3.75 x 5.5 inches, housed in a handmade cloth box. 241 images throughout all nice volumes. "In Museum Bhavan Dayanita Singh creates a new space between publishing and the museum, an experience where books have the same if not greater artistic value than prints hanging on a gallery wall. Consisting of nine individual museums in book form, Museum Bhavan is a miniature version of Singh s traveling exhibition of the same name whose prints are placed in folding expanding wooden structures (her photo-architecture ), which she likes to interchange at will. The images in Museum Bhavan old and new, intriguingly literal and suggestive have been intuitively grouped into lyrical chapters in a visual story such as Little Ladies Museum and Ongoing Museum, as well as more specific series like Museum of Machines. Following her Sent a Letter (2008), the starting point for this project, the books are housed in a handmade box and fold out into accordion-like strips which Singh encourages viewers to install and curate as they wish in their own homes. The exhibition thus becomes a book, and the book becomes an exhibition. All nine book in pale blue wrappers & volume titled Conversation Chambers are in Fine condition. Handmade cloth box is also in Fine condition. An exceptional volume of work in scope and format, now quite scarce.