Bound to be Held: A Book Show

The Contemporary Jewish Museum presents a solo exhibition of the work of San Francisco-based Jewish conceptual artist Josh Greene. The exhibition extends Greene’s career-long interest in instigating social interaction between people. His projects, often funny and provocative public actions, have included a rented storefront from which he conducted what he advertised as Unlicensed Therapy to an artist talk that took place in the backseat of a German police car.

Bound to be Held: A Book Show is a new project in two parts that examines the social meaning of books as objects, bookstores, private collections, libraries, museums, celebrity, and literature. The first installation, Read by Famous, is a display of a selection of books that Greene solicited from well-known individuals who each affirm that they have personally read that copy and who provide accompanying notes about why the book was important to them. Book donors have included Jon Stewart (Why Soccer Matters by Pelé with Brian Winters), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Death Be Not Proud by John Gunther), Alice Waters (The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono), and many others. The books will eventually be offered for sale with proceeds supporting literacy projects.

The second part of the project is called The Library of Particular Experience, consisting of approximately one thousand books donated by the general public and available for borrowing. A variety of reading events will take place in The Library during the run of the show.

Josh Greene has exhibited widely including at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, the Nelson Gallery at UC Davis, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and more.

Bound to be Held: A Book Show is organized by The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.