This image is a digitally rendered composite of photographs taken in Leeds, which remixes the lettering from three sandstone lintels found above antranceways to two former public libraries in socially-challenged areas near the city centre.
“FREE...LIBRAR...E” are taken from the ornate facade of a Free Library opened in 1901 on Woodhouse Lane, which is now a chain pub; “PUBLIC...I...” are taken from an abandoned Grade II listed Public Library built in 1903 on York Road, which also housed a Public Baths, which in turn provided the “S”.
Floating within a margin of black space like a giant flatbed scan, this faux-lintel is part virtual and part actual, turning the forgotten conviction of Victorian civic policy into a protest banner supporting the future value of public libraries.
