Oak Knoll

Published in conjunction with a traveling exhibition, first at The Grolier Club in New York City, December 5, 2024 - February 15, 2025 (Exhibition information available at https://www.grolierclub.org/) and then at The Book Club of California, March 17, 2025 - July 14, 2025 (Exhibition information available at (https://www.bccbooks.org/event/imaginary-books-lost-unfinished-and-fictive-works-found-only-in-other-books/)
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"It is all a delightfully imaginative jeu d'esprit, and the catalogue itself is a handsome piece of bookmaking.... Imaginary Books is as learnedly entertaining as Byers's earlier study, The Private Library, was exhaustive and magisterial."
- Michael Dirda, The Washington Post - "In praise of three 'unimportant' books," January 3, 2025
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/01/03/dirda-strange-books-valery-byers/

"An audacious exhibition of non-existent books -- yes, you read that right -- is being mounted at the Grolier Club in New York through February 15, 2025, in what I daresay is unique in the 140-year history of Americas most prestigious bibliophilic organization."
- Nicholas A. Basbanes, Fine Books & Collections, "Building an Imaginary Library," Winter 2025 issue, about the exhibition at the Grolier Club

"...a splendid look at more than 100 books which don't exist..."
- Alex Johnson, Fine Books & Collections, "January Books Roundup," January 21, 2025
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/imaginary-books-mary-shelley-bath-and-tales-weird-january-books-roundup

"Forget about the best books of 2024. The imaginary books on view at the Grolier Club-from The Garden of Forking Paths to The Songs of the Jabberwock-are truly timeless. ... Imaginary Books is an exhibition of a library that might exist but doesn't, brought into a liminal state of being through a thrilling combination of craftmanship and imagination."
- Jonathan Keats, Forbes - "This Library Exhibits Some Of The Greatest Books That Don't Exist," December 30, 2024, about the exhibition a The Grolier Club
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathonkeats/2024/12/30/this-library-is-exhibiting-some-of-the-greatest-books-that-dont-exist/

"This mind-bending exhibition of books showcases titles so rare you won't find them anywhere else in the world....such is the magical hold of this little exhibition: like a book you can't put down, you start imagining its sequel."
- Ann Lewison, Observer, "Theres a Library of Dreams at the Grolier Club," January 7, 2025, about the exhibition at the Groler Club
https://observer.com/2025/01/art-review-imaginary-books-the-grolier-club/

"... physical representations of more than 100 books that have been lost, unfinished or dreamed up by other writers, will be on display at the Grolier Club, from Thursday through Feb. 15....The reasons that books go missing or never get finished animate the exhibition's witty wall text.... Meanwhile, the tactile imaginary books - those dreamed up by authors in their own books - provide delightful new lenses into familiar works.... Stories abound..."
- Sophie Haigney, The New York Times - Books, Lost or Imaginary, Come to Life at the Grolier Club, Dec. 4, 2024, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/arts/imaginary-books-grolier-club.html

"Suspend [disbelief], and you can enjoy the most extensive and tangible collection of the imaginary - by definition, the rarest of books - to date... Imaginary Books is, as you can imagine, a very elaborate and whimsical bit taken to its most creative extremes."
- Adrian Horton, The Guardian - "These are magic books: bringing imaginary works of literature to life," Dec. 11, 2024, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/dec/11/imaginary-books-exhibition-byron-shakespeare

"...the show is a collection of texts that have one thing in common: They don't exist."
- Ella Feldman, Smithsonian Magazine, "None of These Books Exist. An Inventive New Exhibition Asks: What If They Did?" Dec. 17, 2024, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/none-of-these-books-exist-an-inventive-new-exhibition-asks-what-if-they-did-180985680/

"Es ist die wunderbarste Ausstellung des Jahrzehnts." [Translated: "It is the most wonderful exhibition of the decade."]
- Hannes Stein, Welt, "Diese Bücher gibt es nicht, aber sie sind spannender als die meisten existierenden," Jan. 20, 2025, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://www.welt.de/kultur/article255136218/Ausstellung-im-Grolier-Club-New-York-Diese-Buecher-gibt-es-gar-nicht.html

"For the next few months in New York City, book nerds with a penchant for esoterica can enjoy a special treat....the exhibit includes simulacra, parodies, and lots of cheeky easter eggs for the well-read."
- Brittany Allen, Literary Hub - "Move over, Alexandria: A new exhibit features lost, imagined, and totally fake books," Dec. 16, 2024, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://lithub.com/move-over-alexandria-a-new-exhibit-features-lost-imagined-and-totally-fake-books/

"One of the club's more curious exhibitions... is at once a conceptual art installation and hilarious entertainment... Imaginary Books: Lost, Unfinished and Fictive Works Found Only in Other Books is part literary phenomenon, part satire. It is 'an alternative library' that imagines the look and feel of some of the major 'what ifs' of bibliographic history."
- Steven Heller, PRINT Magazine - "The Daily Heller: Two Must-See Exhibits in NYC This Holiday Season," Dec. 20, 2024, about the exhibition at The Grolier Club
https://www.printmag.com/daily-heller/the-daily-heller-two-must-see-exhibits-in-nyc/

"Byers has given life to more than 100 books... It is... part conceptual art project and part literary indulgence."
- Richard Whiddington, artnet - "Fictional, Lost, and Unfinished Books Come to Life at This New York Show," November 5, 2024
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/imaginary-lost-books-grolier-club-2564821


"This irresistible conceptual-art installation displays meticulously constructed simulacra of books that don't exist --- some because they've been lost, others because they never did exist. Look for 'Love's Labour's Won,' Ernest Hemingway's first novel, and the 'Necronomicon.'"
- Will Heinrich, The New York Times

"Reid Byers 'collects' books that he knows he can never own, not for reasons of scarcity or cost, but because, as he says in this thoroughly entertaining, delightfully illustrated, and fully described 'exhibition' of 114 of his highest of high spots, they are books that either might have been, could have been, or should have been. They are 'real' in one sense only-they have been fully imagined in various works of literature, and thus worthy of consideration. Witty, erudite, original, and brilliantly conceived."
- Nicholas Basbanes, NEH Public Scholar and author of A Gentle Madness

"This lavish catalogue by Reid Byers is surely the best introduction to the legendary Club Fortsas in Paris. Given the fugitive nature of imaginary books, determining the bibliography's completeness is quite impossible, but the fully illustrated selection from classical antiquity down to the modern mystery novel is fascinating. The impeccable history and description of an undeservedly obscure branch of bibliophily is ever so slightly marred by Gallic frivolity. The extensive footnotes, however, dispel any suspicions of a jeux d'esprit."
- Andrea Immel, Curator, Cotsen Children's Library, Princeton University Library


Imaginary Books and the Liminal Moment
Liminal: from the Latin limen, "a threshold."
In story, theatre, and film, a liminal moment occurs when the border is crossed from one world to another, from the normal into the magical. It occurs at the instant when Alice notices the Rabbit's waistcoat, when Lucy breaks through the wardrobe, when the Creature's finger twitches.
This exhibition brings us up to the liminal moment, showing us books that we know do not exist. We are left suspended in this strange space, for being magical, the books cannot be touched. They are being held in existence in the room only by a carefully balanced ontological tension, and for technical thaumaturgical reasons cannot be opened. They are here only to amuse: to prompt a gasp, a knowing chuckle, the briefest thought of "O, how I wish...."
While the experience of the imaginary book is generally intended to amuse, it can also be caustically satiric or dramatically aesthetic. It always inspires reflection: what difference would it make if we could open these books?
Would we laugh differently if we still knew what Aristotle though was funny? What if young Karl Marx had finished the comedy he started? What function does a fictive book serve in its fictional world, and what does that tell us of ours? These books raise serious questions for their would-be readers.
Collectors have often asked where the books have come from. The books were assembled by following the tracks of great collectors like Beerbohm and Cabell, seeking out treasures from the bookshops and attics of Avalon and Phaeacia and sea-coast Bohemia, from the forests of Arden and Brocéliande, and from the west, of course, from the Hesperides. Their exhibition is intended solely to conjure the liminal moment.
This is a real collection of imaginary books. It is entirely composed of parodies in the form of simulacra. They were scouted out over the years through the good offices of a small fellowship: a facsimile bookbinder,
two letterpress printers, a specialty calligrapher, a photoshop expert, and a magician. To make things completely clear, all these books, the catalog, the exhibition at the Club Fortsas, the website, and the Club Fortsas itself, are completely imaginary.

They do but jest . . . no offense in the world.


About the author
Reid Byers, bibliophile and collector of books both real and imaginary, retired as a Master IT Architect at IBM. A longtime member of the Grolier Club, he currently serves as president of the Baxter Society and as convener of the Living with Books group of the Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies. His recent book, The Private Library (Oak Knoll Press, 2021), was listed by the Washington Post among the best non-fiction of the year.


Events Surrounding IMAGINARY BOOKS with Reid Byers...
" Exhibition at the Grolier Club: Thu, Dec 5 - Sat, Feb 15 (with tours and lectures from the author on various dates!)
https://www.grolierclub.org/
" Lecture: "Imaginary Books" at The Baxter Society - Wed, Nov 13, 6:00-7:30
http://www.baxtersociety.org/.