Book Review: The Library by David Schulz

This is one of the texts in The Library, a multilayered book by David Schulz exploring memory and creating a remembrance of his father through the lens of annotated books from his father’s collection. The book is a softcover quarto published in 2019 by Light Rail Works—Schulz’s own imprint—in an edition of one hundred. Within the book, there are three categories of texts: images of pages from Schulz’s father’s library along with ephemera found tucked into books (e.g., receipts); Schulz’s own responses to those items and content; and more free-form reflections by Schulz. The above quote is from the second category—a response to a text from Illuminations, a collection of essays by Walter Benjamin published in 1968—and also captures many of the ideas that are explored in the work. Interspersed throughout the book are also collages of forest images consisting of multiple overlaid exposures from the woods, adding...