An exhibition of artists’ books by Michel Butor and twelve artists will open in Þjóðarbókhlaða, the library building at Arngrímsgata 3, during the Reykjavík Arts Festival, on Monday 26 May. Michel Butor is one of the leading writers of the group that transformed the novel in France around 1960 under the banner of the new novel (“nouveau roman”). Butor stopped writing novels in the 1960s. Since then he has written a great many essays, poems, travel writings and experimental texts of all kinds. For decades he has concentrated on texts for artists’ books, has made a great many such works with a great many artists and has lectured on artists’ books in many places. Butor’s literary career can therefore be said to fall into two parts: on the one hand his “former life” as a writer of the new novel, and on the other his texts for artists’ books, along with all kinds of other texts. The project is a cooperation between the National and University Library of Iceland, the Iceland University of the Arts, the University of Iceland, the French Embassy, the Alliance française and the Reykjavík Arts Festival. The exhibition runs until the end of August.
For more, see the website of the Reykjavík Arts Festival
http://www.listahatid.is/vidburdir/michel-butor-og-vinir/
