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Anonymous Private Collection

Northwestern University

University of Delaware Library

University of Illinois

There are four available copies in this edition. Due to the production process orders will be fulfilled in consultation with the artist about the earliest possible deliver time.

Please not: While resembling an accordion fold structure, the book can not be closed, and thus must be handled, stored, and accessed carefully.

Timbuktu is a concertina artist book that visually expresses my response to select digitized manuscript pages housed at the Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library and the Library of Cheick Zayni Baye of Boujbeha, in Timbuktu, Mali. Timbuktu utilizes the book format as a contemporary art form to celebrate the importance of Timbuktu as a center of knowledge, bookmaking, literacy, and scholarship during its apogee. Embedded in Timbuktu is a QR code linking viewers to select digitized manuscript pages courtesy of the Library of Congress Exhibition, “Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu.”

My work currently focuses on utilizing printmaking and QR code technology as a creative non-traditional access method linking viewers to archival repositories, curated exhibitions, and aggregated data. Each work serves as a visual response to archival collection materials representative of the many stories that can be found deep within the archival landscape.”

— Sauda Mitchell, artist