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NamelessleTTer
"Nameless Letter" is an art project that encourages people all over the world to leave personal notes in books that are available to the public. |
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A photograph found inside a copy of "A Room with a View" |
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Imagine you’re at a library and, upon opening a book, you discover a personal note inside. Did someone leave it there by mistake? Maybe, although it’s more likely one of the anonymous messages that make up this art project.
NamelessleTTer incitesstrangers to interact through anonymous notes meant to be left as a sort of bookmark inside a book. To date, all sorts of messages have been left behind: A recipe for a "Monster Milk Shake" written by a little boy was found inside a recipe book; someone else left a Trivial Pursuit question card inside a novel by Philip Roth; and another person thought it would be a good idea to reveal the ending of the final chapter in a Harry Potter story with a note warning about the death of one of the heroes. There are all sorts of notes, and each of them is handmade.
NamelessleTTer recalls the early days of two other projects with thousands of followers today thanks to the Internet: Bookcrossing and Postsecret. The first encourages followers to abandon books on the street, in cafés, and in libraries all over the planet with the aim of allowing another person to find the book, read it, enjoy it, and ultimately abandon it again so someone else can continue the chain. Postsecret is a community made up of secret anonymous notes written on personalized postcards and sent by ordinary post to Frank Warren, the project’s creator.
NamelessleTTer offers all the charm of anonymity inherent in Postsecret as well as Bookcrossing’s cultural component, since, after all, the project revolves around reading and encourages would-be participants to scour through books in different libraries in search of anonymous messages.
In order to participate in the project, just follow these steps:
1. Be as original, sensitive, artistic, or funny as possible when creating your bookmark. The only limit is your own creativity!
2. Leave your bookmark in different places such as libraries and schools. You can see a partial list here, that only includes the US, France and Belgium, for now.
3. Before putting your bookmark in the book, take a close-up picture (or, better yet, scan it) and send it anonymously to namelesstter@gmail.com
4. In your email, be sure to indicate what book you left the bookmark in and where it was.
5. If you find a namelessleTTer bookmark, please send it to us.
The next time you’re leafing through a book, take a good look in its pages, you may find a message written by a stranger.
Via Cool Hunting
Links
NamelessleTTer Project
Bookcrossing
Postsecret
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(2 Sep 2008)
(1 Sep 2008)
(12 Sep 2008)
(2 Sep 2008)
(4 Feb 2009)
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