The library and writing space Wendy’s Subway presents the Reading Room, a rotating collection of publications developed in conjunction with The People’s Studio: Collective Imagination and selected specifically to respond to works on view in the galleries. Including titles solicited from and published by local and international small presses, artist-run projects, and community archives and organizations, the Reading Room focuses on collective and collaborative practices of making and circulating independent publications.
Visitors are encouraged to spend time with the publications and draw their own connections to works on view. Detailed catalogue information for the collection is available on individual library cards in each book.
The Reader, an evolving online and on-site publication, gathers quotes, excerpts, and fragments selected by a range of contributors in response to the prompt, “I read/see/hear/feel collective imagination in…."
Visitors are encouraged to make their own contributions to The Reader by emailing [email protected] or submitting materials directly to MoMA facilitators. Submissions in the form of single-page, scanned excerpts from books, magazines, and other printed matter; photographs and cell phone snapshots; hand- or typewritten notes; etc. are welcome. All submissions should be accompanied by a reference to your source (i.e.: Author/Artist. Title. Year, if applicable). The printed Reader will be updated on site and online every month, so check back regularly to find your submission and new perspectives on collective imagination.
The Reading Room display structure is designed by New York/Brussels-based architectural practice common room.
Wendy’s Subway is a nonprofit library, writing space, and independent publisher located in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Since 2013, it has provided a versatile platform for expanding modes of reading, writing, and publishing. Wendy’s Subway is dedicated to encouraging creative, critical, and discursive engagement with arts and literature, in the belief that collaborative practice and equitable access to reading are catalysts for social transformation. Reading Rooms have previously been installed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bard Graduate Center, White Columns, NADA New York, Brown University, and the Carnegie Mellon University School of the Arts.