Book Collecting & Artifice in the Digital Age of Zoom

The recent pandemic seems to have changed the way people think about book collections, so many having been forced to use internet platforms like Skype and Zoom for work. This is a trend that appears to be here to stay. Closely associated is the way people react to the bookcases, or appearance of bookcases, in the background. This is a subject that’s been much discussed over the last few years. The dynamic of bookcase display is relatively new and seems designed to communicate ideas of professionalism and inclusion. Moreover, it has become subtly mainstream and on a large scale.

The recent developments point to an evolving shift toward sheer symbolism as an attribute driving current trends in book collecting, which is actually a progression from an earlier era. In Samuel King’s 1771 portrait Ezra Stiles (Stiles was the seventh President of Yale College), King painted a bookcase behind his subject that included the spine text of books that Stiles owned. Stiles instructed King to use the monographs he believed represented his individuality and character, which were displayed in his home library.^[1] Long after, a 19th century writer remarked that someone’s only requirement for their bookcase was that ‘the ‘backs’ were showy,’ and that the person wanted several ‘square feet of books with handsome backs,’; the volumes were never intended to be read.^[2]

Collectors have many motives behind their choice of books. A personal relationship to them is something past generations understood very well; the connection to ‘cherished friends’ embodied in the titles and their authors displayed on spines goes back a long way.

From the earliest times, book spines were traditionally stored facing inward and the page edges facing outward, which in the absence of exterior lettering obviously limited the potential for social capital. From the late 18th century, changes to the manufacture of books standardised their appearance and led to the recognition that the spines of books offered great potential for the display of personal status and social status. However, on 29 January 2018, before the pandemic, a short article entitled ‘Spine In or Out’ appeared in The Wall Street Journal. It seemed that some decorators were encouraging their customers to return to the previous custom and shelve their books ‘backwards’ with the spines facing in ‘to the wall’ as an aesthetic choice.^[3]

In December 2013, the news and opinion website The Guardian had asked readers to submit pictures of their bookcases, or ‘shelfies’. In a take on a popular fad, the ‘selfie,’ The Guardian asked for pictures that not only showed which books readers owned and displayed, but also how they were exhibited, suggesting that the popular conception of book display for display’s sake had become representative of a person’s inner self in a broader social context. (The Guardian did not ask which books were actually read.)  ‘Forget selfies, we want to see your shelfies; a snap of your bookshelf is far more interesting.^’[4]  Readers duly sent in pictures of their books with descriptions to which The Guardian added short titles meant to be humorous. These often pointed out the oddities and objects one would not typically see in a bookcase like whisky, book collections arranged to represent a rainbow of colors or even stuffed animals on the shelves. The Guardian proclaimed the bookcase in one’s home reveals something about the owner because ‘What's more telling than a bookshelf?^’[5] The idea that displayed books (and even the absence of text on the spine) represent something personal about their owner continues today and seems to have taken on a new aspect in the digital Age of Zoom.

Some enterprising internet companies are currently selling actual books, but the objects are masked to make them uniformly indistinct on their own and not meant to be read  while at the same time following distinct motifs. Amanda Hess, of The New York Times, terms websites with purely decorative books for sale as venues to acquire ‘literary ornamentation’^[6]  One example is ‘Thehouseofelements’ that offers the customer the ability to ‘Mix & Match Fabric Covered Decorative Books’ to their own taste. The retailer offers a variety of random books, covered in white, black, or grey colored cloth specifically for decoration. The contents of the books are arbitrary, as they are covered and not meant to be read but displayed to give accent to the customer’s home. The company explains that they ‘give books… a new life in your home decor’.^[7] Interior Home Scapes also sells cloth-covered books though their product imitates hand-sewn editions. The ‘E. Lawrence Antique Linen Collection’ is re-covered by the company in white fabric with fake raised spine bands that mimic the sewn pages in older books. The authentic ‘plain hardback books’ are random texts and bindings ‘transformed… into beautiful decorative objects sure to add the punctuation mark to any décor.’ The blurb goes on, ‘new spine details are made using scanned 18th and 19th century documents,’ which seems to imply that the books mimic antique objects in some type of authentic way [figure 1].^[8]

Another company, Black Octopus Books, offers a different kind of collection specifically for display. The books are not covered or altered in any way by the company but simply arranged by appearance and type to create the desired effect. The company offers ‘Vintage Books by the foot & color’ to create a personalized collection that meets the customer’s desired result for their decorating needs. It is possible to purchase old and worn volumes that are ‘authentic real books for decorative display, staging, interior design, and wedding purposes or any other use you can think of!’ Or, for your ‘literary ornamentation’ needs, the company also provides a color-matching service and promises that they can ‘arrange any set of colors you want’ to create themes of used and purely decorative book collections. The items that Black Octopus Books sells are indeed real books. The difference is that they are not for reading, just repurposed to create new motifs for their customers.^[9]

The company Bookcrush recovers random hardback books and then letters them with the customer’s choice of classic titles and authors. The books ‘may be a mix of preowned, vintage or current editions and are chosen randomly to add covers to’. After resurfacing with white or grey card stock wrapped around the spines, ‘Classic literature titles [are] hand-lettered on the binding’ and the ‘Authors are stamped.’ Bookcrush does remind the customer that ‘the books you will receive are no relation to the titles on the covers. The titles are merely for decorative purposes.’ With this product, you can ‘choose your own title for free’ and ‘stage… your book shelf.’^[10] Bookcrush offers real books that imitate classic volumes but have been reconfigured to the customers’ specifications so that they maximize the display potential and simulate the cultural capital that the authentic objects convey. With this in mind, today’s consumer can ‘enjoy [their] new book decor!’ and impress their friends.^[11]

By 2021, it was possible to purchase all kinds of things that imitate books, including fake books that actually incorporate parts of real books. The primary function of these objects made from real ‘hand curated’ books is to deceive, rather than to amuse. The company called Covogoods offers to construct an object with the ‘Tops of books [that] are left intact making these real vintage books appear even more normal.’  The design allows ‘Secret hidden storage [that] is undetectable even with [the product] out in the open, when [the] set is placed against a wall or vertical surface’. The authentic volumes are cut and attached to create a space enclosed by the tops and leftmost/rightmost binding covers, which are held in place with furniture grade plywood, to create ‘the look of normal books’ [figure 2].^[12]  Covogoods also sells the individual book parts for do-it-yourself projects. The consumer can purchase random ‘Cut Book Spines left Loose’ to use for projects of their own choosing. These are actual book spines from ‘vintage books’ with about one inch of the text pages left intact.^[13]

It is also possible to purchase panels of fake imitation leather bound books to fill out a bookcase with style. Ralph’s Antiques sells 17^th to 19th century vellum covered books, as well as 20th century leather-bound book collections for display. In addition the company has panels of faux leather book spines in ‘various colors and titles,’ with a selection from four to eleven fake books per panel with different heights.^[14] Book Spines or Book Dummies is a company that specializes in genuine leather clad fake books, which are hand crafted specifically for display. The website explains that the ‘creative team of specialists in bookbinding, design and restoration’ includes ‘antiquarian Book collectors, librarians, binders, craftsmen, artists, [and] designers.’ A Book Dummies’ team will manufacture ‘replicas of valuable old Books,’ that are ‘imitations of classic collection[s]’ fashioned from ‘stylized quality leather’ [figure 3]. The company specializes in ‘historic printmaking methods’ to create fake books that are overtly meant for display, which results in ‘false bookcases… [and] imitations of bookshelves.’ One may purchase these objects, the company states, to show one’s ‘understanding and appreciation of culture,’ which demonstrates 21^st-century book symbolism in simple terms.^[15]

Covogoods also sells ‘Real Blank Hardcovers,’ which are book-like objects that imitate the codex by creating an object that simulates whole book collections. These objects are taken for the genuine article and so are of equal social value. The Covogoods website claims their product is ‘an actual book, brand new, custom created’ by the company. The ‘CovoBook’ is ‘real in every way but has no printed content inside and no printed title outside. Just [a] bright, clean design in the form of a book.’ The website proclaims that CovoBooks have ‘crisp white pages’ that make them ‘a perfect accessory for a decorative shelf [or] bookcase’ [figure 4].^[16]

As of this writing, the internet virtual meeting has become commonplace, as has using bookcases for a backdrop. Journalist Liane Cassavoy has suggested using a bookcase as a backdrop to look professional during video meetings. She explains that a ‘pleasant, light, professional attire, and a background of books send a better signal.’^[17] There are several different ways professionals can project backgrounds for their video feeds, from digital to physical backdrops. Amazon is selling a variety of bookcase backdrops for video conferencing. One such background is the ‘LYWYGG 7X5FT Bookshelf Backdrop.’ A simple search on Google using the term ‘Bookshelves videocall background’ will yield a variety of bookcase backgrounds. The facades are made of cotton, plastic, vinyl, cloth and can be tapestries, sheets, stickers, wallpaper, and even a cardboard standee. The professional can set this up behind them and project their understanding and appreciation of mental and material culture through a far more economical medium than investing in physical books, but often with the same results [figure 5].^[18]

Because television studios closed down in 2020 during the pandemic, New York Times columnist Amanda Hess explained that for many people who need to communicate via video feed over the internet ‘there’s only one move: you talk in front of a bookcase.’ She goes on to show that ‘the bookcase has become the background of choice,’ and that the person ‘chooses to be framed’ this way (quite like academics have been framing themselves for decades). Hess does accurately point out that a ‘credibility bookcase’ in the background gives the person speaking ‘a patina of authority,’ because it is an object ‘that makes you look like you know what you’re talking about’.  As we have seen from instances as early as the 19th century, ‘the credibility bookcase signals class, education and money…a gesture at intellectual depth’.^[19] An online conference, Bookshelves in the Age of the COVID-19 Pandemic, November 3 and 4 2020, tried to get at the social aspects of this development. It held sessions with titles like ‘Browsing and interpreting real and virtual bookshelves,’ and ‘Work and/or Play: Pandemic Shelfies.’ The abstract argued that ‘the well-curated bookcase has become a manifestation of our mental state, and perhaps for the first time during this barber-less interlude in human history, our books are more important than our hair.’^[20]

Today, with over 115,000 followers (as of 9/30/22), the ‘Bookcase Credibility’ anonymous Twitter feed showcases people and the bookcases they sit in front of during video conferences. The tag line is ‘What you say is not as important as the bookcase behind you.’ The feed features pictures of people with their book collections and commentary on what the person may have intended through the display. The images feature people such as new British Prime Minister Liz Truss, President Joe Biden, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Author Stephen King, Journalist Jenni Russell, author and political commentator Nina Jankowicz and actor Tom Hanks. Comments, often tongue-in-cheek, are made on the bindings, titles, arrangement, color, placement, the bookcases themselves, and especially the objects that one does not typically see in a bookcase. The comments also play with the idea that many of the book collections in the background may in fact be video conference backdrops that people acquired during the Covid-19 pandemic.^[21]

In 2022, Elle Hunt wrote about curated book collections displayed on bookcases in the homes of celebrities like Ashley Tisdale, Adele, and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Guardian. The article goes into how clients hired curators to stock their shelves with niche books on subjects ‘such as wine or aviation’ so it is less likely guests will ask about the volumes the way they may inquire about popular fiction.^[22] Hunt and Hess speak about these developments as if they are somehow a new phenomenon, even though the idea can be traced to at least 1856, when the symbolic home library made sure the visual aspect was ‘carefully provided for, [but] the mind [was] neglected.’^[23] Exhibiting book collections has been connected to our perception of those displaying the books for hundreds of years. The only difference now, in the 21st century Age of Zoom, is that everyone seems to be consciously in on the game.^[24]