Bibliotheque Nationale de France Paris V

Several floors of bookshelves, a vault of knowledge, and cultural transmission – Candida Höfer’s sharp depiction of an interior from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris is characterized by its symmetry and sense of overview. This major library, built from 1854 to 1875, was designed by the architect Henri Labrouste, who helped shape the idea of a modern library as a temple of knowledge and a room for contemplation. These ideals have proven robust, and also in our own day and age we want the book and its culture to have an organized, well-suited home. Höfer shows us the library’s own logic and materiality in its depots and reading rooms. The fruits of her labour include the book Libraries (2005), which documents fantastic libraries in several countries. The detailed photographs reflect regional and cultural variations, from exclusive palace libraries to the popular public libraries of the cities.

Since the 1980s Höfer has concentrated on photographing the interiors of public buildings, such as museums, archives, opera houses, and libraries – often ones that are majestic, elegant, and voluminous. In series that are arranged according to building type or geographic parameters, she investigates the different formal and structural characteristics of the rooms. The rooms in her pictures are usually devoid of people, something that underlines the analytical, almost clinical silence of these large-format photographs. Höfer alludes to humanity as a sort of absent guest who becomes the topic of conversation, and who is thus paradoxically and melancholically present.