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Search Engine

Porter, Louis

(London). (Louis Porter). 2022
'Search Engine' by Louis Porter.

From the edition limited to 8 copies (plus 2 APs).

Search Engine is a series of index cards featuring photographs sourced from the Science & Miscellaneous section of the London Library — one of the world's largest independent lending libraries. These images are ordered as they were encountered, alphabetically by subject, on shelves that make neighbours of Sleep and Smuggling and that bring together Pleasure, Poaching and Poisons.

The result could be seen as an archaeology of the photographic systems of knowledge that we often taken for granted.

The subjects listed and illustrated include: Advertising, Aeronautics, Agriculture, Alchemy, Anatomy, Animal Lore, Aquarium, Arbitration, Archery, Arms & Armour, Artillery, Astrology, Astronomy, Athletics, Atlantis, Atomic Theory, Bacteriology, Ballooning, Baths, Beer, Bees, Bells, Big Game, Billiards, Biology, Birds, Blind, Bookkeeping,Botany, Boxing, Bridges, Building, Bull-fighting, Burial, Butterflies, Camel, Canals, Canoeing, Capital & Labour, Cards, Carpentering, Cats, Cattle, Cavalry, Caves, Celibacy, Censorship, Chairman’s Handbooks, Character, Charities, Cheese, Chemistry, Chess, Children, Christmas, Chronograms, Chronology, Cinematography, Circus, Civil Service, Climate Change, Clubs, Coaching, Coal, Coast Erosion, Cocoa, Coffee, Coins, Colour-blindness, Commons Preservation, Computers, Conjuring, Conscience, Co-operative, Copyright, Coronations & Regalia, Corporations, Cotton, Coursing, Cremation, Cricket, Crime, Crosses, Cruelty to Animals, Crystallography, Cycling, Dancing, Deaf, Death, Dentistry, Devil, Distribution,Dogs, Domestic Servants, Dreams, Drink, Drugs, Duelling &c. Please contact us for the full list of subjects.

'The images reproduced in this card index were sourced from the Science & Miscellaneous section of the London Library between November 2021 and May 2022.' (From the Introduction card).
(400 x 125 x 70 mm). Title, Introduction, seven cards detailing subject matters (listed A–Z), a further 390 cards with reproduction photographs; card with colophon at rear. Each card digitally printed in white ink. Loose as issued in original publisher's handmade black drawer.
#48343