105 x 155mm, 84 pages, Single colour printing, Perfect bound, Softcover, 2019

Co-published by Printed Matter

The artists’ book How to shoplift books by David Horvitz is a guide on how to steal books. It details 80 ways in which one can steal a book, from the very practical, to the witty, imaginative, and romantic.

“Hide the book inside a fake rock.”

This textbook is readable, but also shamelessly draws attention to its existence as an object, a conversation starter, a thing that can be acquired by fair means or foul. This is a book that turns a point of sale display into an intellectual and ethical adventure.

The work is romantic and anachronistic: as our primary source for buying books becomes impersonal online shops (that pretend to deliver a personal experience) it is almost impossible to spontaneously steal anything, and the act of disobedience becomes a story of the past. Horvitz’ compendium of delightfully written performance instructions is a collection of modern culture scripts and is, so to speak, writing history.

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