D22

NOVEMBER 10-16, 2005

WESTCOAST LIFE

VJS11AL4R1S

Nova Library, an
installation by
New York artist
Hans Winkler at
the Vancouver
public library Central Branch.

Inside the brain of an addict
BY CLINT BURNHAM

Addicts read books too. This may • NOVA LIBRARY Downtown Eastside drug users' book selections
• ON THE
be the most commendable message
that a new exhibit at the Central amassed in an installation that is an allegory for addiction
SHELVES
Branch of the Vancouver public
Nova Library
library gets out. Nova Library, a controller lives in that place all of literature looks to be an allego- that has been demonized as a junky
"social sculpture" by New York artist screamed back from white hot blue ry for addiction. Just what is George haven, as though users aren't in KerHans Winkler
Hans Winkler, is up until Nov. 30.
sky — Can always pull the nova so curious about? And maybe Godot risdale or Comox, Richmond or RegiVancouver
public library,
This library-within-a-library is a equipped now with tower blasts from was Samuel Beckett's connection.
na, North Vancouver or North York.
Central Branch
collection of a few hundred books Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
So this plenitude, this wide range of Nonetheless, this is an affirmative
selected by drug users in the DownWith the Nova Library we hear titles, reference, interest and reading, project, an in-your-face affirmation
Until Nov. 30
town Eastside, responding to a survey those "brain screams" — for we are also does something else. The Nova that, yes, drug users, those pawns in
by Winkler. The artist has worked in in the brain of the addict, the junky, Library reminds us that we read some the Drug Wars and the Four Pillars
Europe and North American, carry- the user. Because what is most strik- of these books — that indeed there is policies, have imaginations, have creing out actions and projects that ing about this work is the sheer vari- more that is similar in drug users and ative lives, and live in the world of
intervene into popular consciousness. ety of books chosen for inclusion: non-drug users than different. Indeed, books as much as any of us. For there
This latest project aims at the heart from first nations literature to self- with the range of drugs today from is another Nova Library: the Carnegie
of Vancouver's shameful present: it help, from children's books to literary chocolate and caffeine to Paxil and Branch at Main and Hastings where,
humanizes the addict.
classics, from genre fiction to West Xanax, from pot to coke and sugar to every morning when it opens, women
heroin, who among us is not an and men are waiting, anxiously, to
Nova Library is named after Coast classics.
enter that world. It is to Hans WinWilliam S. Burroughs' 1966 novel
So Curious George rubs shoulders addict, a junky, a user?
Nova Express. Written in Burroughs' with Waiting for Godot; How to Draw This might be the only criticism of kler's credit, and that of the grunt
cut-up style, the novel fused science- Comics the Marvel Way with The the Nova Library. Why only survey gallery that sponsored this project,
fiction with social satire: "Your cities High Times Reader, Geronimo's Story
drug users in the Downtown Eastside? that now we are aware of these conare ovens where South American nar- of His Own Life with Illegal Drugs: A We know that drug users live every- nections.
cotic plants brought total disposal — Complete Guide to Their History, where in this city — province — coun- Clint Burnham is a Vancouver freelance
Brain screams of millions who have Chemistry, Use and Abuse. Suddenly try — but it is the Downtown Eastside writer and educator.