Wake Up and Smell the Books at MoMA
Pick up your favourite old classic or buy something new, curl up wherever you are with a cup of coffee, and nuzzle your nose between the pages.
New York is a very strange, very wonderful place. A city full of the quirky, the neurotic, and the downright weird, there is a place for everything and everyone in New York. That's why when I came across Rachael Morrison I was hardly surprised by her unorthodox performance art — in fact, I was completely spellbound.
Morrison, a Senior Library Assistant at The Museum of Modern Art Library in New York, has launched a performance art project called 'Smelling the Books.' And yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. In early 2010, Morrison began her olfactory escapade, systematically smelling every book in the MoMA Library collection and documenting each new sensory experience in a ledger. Of the performance Morrison says her purpose is to "foster a discussion of the future of print media, the ways we read, methods of classification, and the way in which smell is entwined with memory."
I love the smell of books. A book is like a lover — with each one you have a unique experience and with each you build a unique relationship, one that can't be re-fabricated by a computer or a kindle, no matter how hard you try. And that's why I'm asking you now, gentle reader, to join Morrison's crusade; pick up your favourite old classic or buy something new, curl up wherever you are with a cup of coffee, and nuzzle your nose between the pages. There has never been a better time than now to smell a book. 
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