הדסה גולדויכט

In the autumn of 2020, artist Hadassa Goldvicht began documenting the storage stacks of the National Library of Israel, in preparation for the library’s move to its new building. Over the course of nearly three years, Goldvicht filmed the gradual emptying of the stacks—from the books packed in advance of the move, through the shelving systems that housed them, and eventually to the stacks workers themselves, who slowly transferred to the new building.​

The book To the Inner Libraries / Biblioscopia engages with personal and collective bodies of knowledge, and with the relationships between body, language, and time, through a clear-eyed reflection on pain and recovery. The images in the book capture the architecture of the old library building and its storage systems, alongside more intimate details—decorations, objects, and markings added by the stacks workers to their everyday work environment. Together, these images trace layered histories of use, presence, and time.​

The book includes interviews with National Library employees who reflect on changes in their work processes over time and in relationship to technology, their ongoing relationship with readers, and the place the library has held in their lives across decades.​

At the center of the book is a conversation between Goldvicht and Dr. Efrat Suraqui, a rehabilitation physician. Their discussion considers the library as a metaphor to our internal libraries; Goldvicht’s journey of recovery during the years in which the work was photographed; personal and collective paths of healing; and the inner libraries and embodied forms of knowledge carried within us—those we bear, organize, and at times must learn anew how to inhabit.​

The book also includes texts by Dr. Amitai Mendelson, curator of the exhibition Biblioscopia at the Israel Museum, and by Netta Assaf, curator of the exhibition To the Inner Libraries at the National Library.