Nova Library was a project by German Artist Hans Winkler, produced by grunt in collaboration with the Vancouver Public Library and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. In this project we polled the drug addicts’ community on their reading habits to create a public reading room where all the works had been selected by addicts.

The project came at the end of a Four Pillars Initiative that had gone on for several years. It introduced Harm Reduction and focused on the DTES (Downtown Eastside) drug problems. There was much media around the “solving of addiction.” Winkler's project viewed this 'social problem' as a community and looked into what addicts read.

To produce this project we hired a young recovering addict named Chris Livingstone who worked in the addicts’community. Winkler developed a questionnaire that Chris took to the community, bringing back the names of 850 books. The Vancouver Public Library then took the list and pulled the titles from their stacks and provided Winkler with space to assemble a reading room that existed in the library over a six-week period and was seen by thousands of people. The library allowed Winkler to ink-stamp every book so they went back into the stacks permanently branded with the project.

Nova Library was successful in engaging the community of viewers who visited the site. The selected titles showed a vast array of interests and themes and gave viewers new insights into a community they were sure they knew.

POSTER

Abel, Ernest L., Marihuana, the First Twelve Thousand Years, Adams, Douglas, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1952- , Adams, Eve, Garden of Eden; Alcorn, Randy C., Heaven; Allegro, John Marco, Sacred Mushroom and the Cross : A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East; Anders, Charlie, Choir Boy; Anderson, H. C. (Hans Christian), Emperor's New Clothes; Andrews, V. C. (Virginia C., V. C. Andrews (series'); Anthony, Piers, Rings of Ice, Xanth (series), Applebaum, Anne, Gulag : A History; Asimov, Isaac Foundation; I, Robot; Nine Tomorrows; Space Trooper; Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, Oryx and Crake; Baldino, Rachel Greene, Welcome to Methadonia : A Social Worker's Candid Account of Life in a Methadone Clinic; Ballard, Robert D, Return to Titanic: A New Look at the World's Most Famous Ship; Barker, Clive, Great and Secret Show : The First Book of the Art; Sacrament; Barlett, Donald L., Empire : The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes, Barr, Nevada, Flashback; Bass, Ellen, Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse; Beckett, Samuel, Waiting for Godot, a Tragicomedy in Two Acts; Belting, Natalia Maree, Long-Tailed Bear, and Other Indian Legends; Bennett, Chris and Neil McQueen, Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible, Berger, Thomas, Little Big Man; Bien, Thomas & Beveryl, Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction; Binchy, Maeve, Glass Lake; Black, Jack, You Can't Win; Black, Lewis, Nothing's Sacred; Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna), Isis Unveiled : A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology - Parts 1 & 2; Blum, William, Killing Hope : U.S. Military and CIA Interventions; Blume, Judy, Summer Sisters; Bonner, Helen, Laid Daughter : A True Story, The; Bowles, Paul, Sheltering Sky; Bradbury, Ray , Martian Chronicles; Brautigan, Richard; Brodsky, Alexandra Fanny; Smoke Signals: From Eminence to Exile; Brooks, Kevin, Candy; Bruchac, Joseph, Native American Stories; Bulgakov, Mikhail Afanas'evich, Master and Margarita; Burns, David D, Ten Days to Self-Esteem; Burroughs, William S., Naked Lunch; Junky, Letters; Callahan, John, Do What He Says! He's Crazy!; Cameron, Anne, Daughters of Copper Woman; Cameron Julia, Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity; Caron, Roger, Go-boy! : Memoirs of a Life Behind Bars, Carroll, Jim, Basketball Diaries, Dry Dreams; Carroll, Lewis, Alice in Wonderland; Castaneda, Carlos, Teaching of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge; Chan, Paul D., Medicine; Cheng, Pang Guek, Culture Shock! Vancouver At Your Door; Chernow, Ron, Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.; Christie, Agatha, 4:50 From Paddington; Clavell, James, Shogun : A Novel of Japan; Cleary, Beverly, Mouse and the Motorcycle; Coffelt, Nancy, Dogs in Space; Cohen, Daniel et al., Real Ghosts; Collins, Max Allan, Mummy, The; Connors, Gerard J. et al, Substance Abuse Treatment and Stages of Change : Selecting and Planning Interventions; Cook, Robin,Coma; Cool, Tom, Secret Realms; Cooper, James Fenimore, Last of the Mohicans; A Narrative of 1757; Cork, John, James Bond the Legacy: Forty Years of 007 Movies; Cotter, Bruce, When They Won't Quit : A Call to Action for Families, Friends and Employers of Alcohol and Drug-Addicted People; Courtwright, David T.,, Forces of Habit : Drugs and the Making of the Modern World; Covey, Stephen R., Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic; Covington, Stephanie, Woman's Way Through the twelve Steps; Craven, Margaret, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Crowther, Christy et al., Policing Urban Poverty; Crumb, R., R. Crumb´s America; Culleton, Beatrice / Mosionier, Beatrice, In Search of April Raintree; Cussler, Clive, Sahara; Dahl, Roald, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda; Dante Alighieri, Dante´s Inferno; Davidson, Hilda Roderick Ellis, Viking and Norse Mythology; Davies, Robertson, Fifth Business: A Novel; Davis, Angela Yvonne, Angela Davis : An Autobiography; Davis, John H., Mafia Dynasty : The Rise and Fall of the Gambino Crime Family; De Montfort, Simon, Confessions of a Red Sea Smuggler; De Quincey, Thomas, Confessions of an English Opium Eater; De Vries, Maggie, Missing Sarah : A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister; Diamant, Anita, Red Tent; Dick, Philip K., Blade Runner, Scanner Darkly; Dickens, Charles, Oliver Twis; Dixon, Franklin W., Hardy Boys (series); Dorsman, Jerry, How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide; Duncan, Tom, Advanced Physics; Dyer, Wayne W.; Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way; Edgren, Gretchen, Playboy Book: 50 Years; Edards, Cassie, Thunder Heart; Emecheta, Buchi, Joys of Motherhood: A Novel; Engkraf, Matthew, Valley of Darkness : My Life as a Crack Addict; Findley, Timothy, Not Wanted on the Voyage; Flint, Jeremy, How to Play Bridge; Foster, Alan Dean, Clash of the Titans; Frankl, Viktor Emil, Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy; Fraser, Rebecca, Story of Britain : From the Romans to the Present : A Narrative History; Froud, Brian, Good Faeries; Fulop, Scott & John L. Goldwater, Archie Americana Series Best of the Eighties; Gadsby, Joan, Addiction by Prescription: One Woman's Triumph and Fight for Change; Gahlinger, Paul M., Illegal Drugs : A Complete Guide to Their History, Chemistry, Use and Abuse; George, Dan, My Heart Soars; Geronimo, Geronimo´s Story of his own Life; Gilbert, Lara, I Might be Nothing: Journal Writing; Gill, Sam D., Dictionary of Native American Mythology; Ginsberg, Allen, Howl and other poems; Goddard, Robert, Painting the Darkness; Gold, Mark S., Facts About Drugs and Alcohol; Golden Books, Habbit, The; Golding, William, Lord of the Flies: Goode, Molly, Land Before Time: Gorski, Terence T., Staying Sober: A Guide for Relapse Prevention; Goscinny, Asterix the Gaul, Goulding, Phil G., Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1,000 Greatest Works, Grahame, Kenneth; Wind in the Willows; Griesser, Jean and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, God Song : A Summary Study of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada's Bhagavad-Gita at it is; Grisham, John, Broker;Client; Gross, Edward (Edward A.), Bruce Lee: Fists of Fury; Guthrie, Arlo, Alice's Restaurant; Harris, Joel Chandler, Complete Tales of Uncle Remus; Harvey, Michael G., Diary of a Train-Spotter; Hemingway, Ernest, Garden of Eden; Old Man and the Sea; Snows of Kilimanjaro, and Other Stories; Hesse, Herrmann, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf; Hinz, Christopher, Liege-Killer; Hoffman, Robert, Shards of Reflection, A Solitary Declaration; Howard, Robert Ervin, Bloody Crown of Conan, The; Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, The; Conan the Barbarian;Hugo, Victor, Miserables, Les; Huxley, Aldous, Brave New World;Island; Inui, Sekihiko, Comic Party; Irving, Washington, Legend of Sleepy Hollow; Jalal al-Din Rumi, Maulana, Poems by Rumi; Jerome, Jerome K.(Jerome Klapka), Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog; Johnson, Spencer, Who Moved My Cheese? : An A-mazing Way to Deal with Change in your Work and in your Life; Jordan, Joseph A., We Can Make it…Together; Jordan, Robert, Wheel of Time (series), Jung, John, Psychology of Alcohol and Other Drugs: A Research Perspective; Junger, Sebastian, Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea; Juster, Norton, Phantom Tollbooth, Kafka, Franz, Trial;Kantar, Edwin B., Bridge for Dummies, Kasl, Charlotte Davis, Many Roads, One Journey: Moving Beyond the Twelve Steps; Keene, Carolyn, Nancy Drew (series); Kelley, Karen, Southern Comfort; King, Alexander, Mine Enemy Grows Older; Kesey, Ken, Sailor Songs, Further, Sometimes a great Notion; King, Martin Luther, Jr., Autobiography; King, Stephen, Dark Tower, Firestarter, It, Misery, Stand, The; Kingston, Karen, Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui; Kinsella, W.P., Dance Me Outside; Kipling, Rudyard, Rikki-tikki-tavi; Knapp, Caroline, Drinking: A Love Story; Kohlberg, Judith, Conquering Chronic Disorganization; Kosinski, Jerzy N., Painted Bird; Kurtz, Jane; L'Amour, Louis, Sackett Brand, Sackett's Land, Warrior's Path, Laotse, Tao Te Ching: A New English Version, Leary, Timothy Francis, Politics of Ecstasy, The; Lee, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird; Lee, Martin A., Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: the CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond; Lee, Stan, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way; Letts, Billie, Where the Heart Is: A Novel; Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), Chronicles of Narnia (series); Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, Song of Hiawatha, The; Lord, Walter, Night to Remember, A; Lowell, Elizabeth, Warrior; Lucas, Alec, Great Canadian Short Stories; Ludlum, Robert, Bourne Identiy, The, Parcifal Mosaic, The; Luke, Mary M., Crown for Elizabeth, A; MacDonald, Ann-Marie, Macleod, R. C., Way the Crow Flies; North West Mounted Police and Law Enforcement, 1873-1905, The; Martell, Hazel, Hammer of the Gods; Maurer, Stephen G., Bannock Book: Food for the Outdoors; McCoy, Alfred W., Politics of Heroin : CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, McLynn, Frank, Napoleon: A Biography; Melchizedek, Drunvalo, Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life; Melville, Herman, Moby Dick; Miller, Frank, Sin City (series); Miller, Sue, While I Was Gone; Millett, Kate, Politics of Cruelty: An Essay on the Literature of Political Imprisonment; Mindell, Earl L. et al., Earl Mindell's Pill Bible, Mistry, Rohinton, Family Matters, Fine Balance, A; Mitchell, Margaret, Gone with the Wind; Moore, Lorrie, Self Help; Moore, Robin, French Connection: The World's Most Crucial Narcotics Investigation; Morrison, Toni, Jazz; Morse, Melvin, Where God Lives: The Science of the Paranormal and How our Brains are Linked to the Universe; Mowat, Farley, Never Cry Wolf; Munro, Alice, Runaway: Stories; Murakami, Jon J, Enter the Dragons; Murphy, Emily F. (Emily Ferguson), Black Candle; National Geographic Society, National Geographic Atlas of the World; Nochlin, Linda, Women, Art, and Power: And Other Essays; O'Brian, John, Leaving Las Vegas; Olsen, Theodore V., Soldier Blue; Ortiz, Alfonso, Pow Wow Book; Padsadowski, Alan; Recovering from Addiction, Pearlstone, Zena et. Al, Katsina: Commodified and Appropriated Images of Hopi Supernaturals; Peck, M. Scott, Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth, Perrault, Charles, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinkney, Andrea Davis, Let it Shine : Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters;