Reading Room
Library + Quiet Public Use
The Art & Water Space includes a reading room with an eclectic, growing library spanning philosophy, anthropology, watershed studies, arts, craft, literature, instructional texts, and more. Visitors are invited to spend time reading, reflecting, and engaging with these materials during open hours.
We welcome contributions to the library, allowing it to grow through shared knowledge and community investment. Each exhibition is accompanied by a curated reading list, available in the space to further inform and deepen engagement with the work on view.
- Join us in the Reading Room during OPEN STUDIO hours
- Browse the Library and select a book you are interested in investigating further.
- Submit a short paragraph stating why you would like to take this book home
- Return with the book at one of our quarterly Reading Room Events to share a:
- reading
- talk
- response
- group discussion
The Library
Storytelling
The Original Folk & Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated & edited by Jack Zipes
Classic stories often tamed and familiarized in popular film and television, but in these pages, tales like “Maiden without Hands” provide eerie and visceral narratives to pique the imagination and provide fodder for all sorts of creative retellings.
The Arabian Nights, Tales of 1001 Nights, Volumes 1, 2, & 3, translated by Malcolm C. Lyons
Metamorphoses by Ovid, translated by David Raeburn
The Sufferings of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Tales of Mystery & Imagination, by Edgar Allen Poe
Hans Christian Andersen’s Complete Fairy Tales, translated by Jean Hersholt
Swimming Studies, by Leanne Shapton
The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Little Bird, by Germano Zullo and Albertine
Anthropology
What is Art For? By Ellen Dissanayake
What is the difference between art and artifice? What does art have to do with play, dreams, fantasy, ritual? When does an aesthetic quality come into the equation and is that what imparts meaning…behind everyday experiences? All these questions and more are explored in Dissanayake’s exciting interdisciplinary text.
Writing Ourselves: Mass-Observation and Literacy Practices, by Dorothy Sheridan, Brian Street, and David Bloome
Between Theater & Anthropology, by Richard Schechner
The Struggle and the Tools: Oral and Literate Strategies in an Inner City Community, by Ellen Cushman
Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist, by Hortense Powdermaker
The Practice of Everyday Life, by Michel de Certeau
Ethnography as Commentary: Writing from the Virtual Archive, by Johannes Fabian
Ethnography through Thick & Thin, by George E. Marcus
Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, by Lawrence Weschler
The Cultures of Collecting, Edited by John Elsner and Roger Cardinal
The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman
Orality and Literacy, by Walter J. Ong
Philosophy
A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
Some books operate more like a mathematical equation, they need to be diagrammed, broken down word by word, splayed out into parenthetical definitions, and consumed slowly like a 12-course meal. That is Deleuze and Guattari. But I would encourage the endeavor to be sure. The first chapter in A Thousand Plateaus sort of summarizes their thought pattern as the ecological “Rhizome”—which “has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things…rhizome is alliance.” Thus everything in the text is neither premise nor conclusion, but an alliance in the middle. That in itself is a philosophy to mull.
Communion: The Female Search for Love, by Bell Hooks
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, by Bell Hooks
Lacan Today: Psychoanalysis, Science, Religion, by Alexandre Leupin
Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, by Michel Foucault
Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus: Introduction to Schizoanalysis, by Eugene W. Holland
A Lover’s Discourse, by Roland Barthes
Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography, by Roland Barthes
Power, by Michel Foucault
Social Thought
A Fieldguide to Getting Lost, by Rebecca Solnit
“I never was lost in the woods my whole life,” said Daniel Boone, “though once I was confused for three days.” — How do we know where we are? Direction. Location. Landscape. Is lost a matter of place or a matter of being in the world? Get ready to mark up the pages on this thought-provoking read by Rebecca Solnit, where she takes you through different stories and experiences and invites you to journey into getting lost if you haven’t already.
Idea-Links: The new creativity, by Jim Link
Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, by Rebecca Solnit
The Farawy Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit
The Mother of All Questions, by Rebecca Solnit
Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit
Now I can Sleep! Haitian women overcoming life-destroying poverty in a devastated country, by Barb Grove
The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, by David Brooks
Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan
The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach
The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness, by Morgan Housel
Literature
In the Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje
This section could go on and on, and again I invite you to contribute more titles and expand our literary reach. But each title we do have, include this one by Ondaatje, has a certain sumptuousness of language and imagery that open scenes to be painted and performed. Words like, “Sometimes when he is alone Patrick will blindfold himself and move around a room, slowly at first, then faster until he is immaculate and magical in it. He will parade, turn suddenly away from lampshades, duck under hanging plants, even run across the room and leap in his darkness over small tables.” Come discover the story that wraps around the imagery. Sit down and read with us.
The Seed Keeper (a novel), by Diane Wilson
Where the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owns
Squirrel seeks Chipmunk, by David Sedaris
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day, by Ben Loory
Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
Mr. Palomar, by Italo Calvino
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Immortality, by Milan Kundera
Encounter (essays), by Milan Kundera
Identity (a novel), by Milan Kundera
Farewell Waltz, by Milan Kundera
The Curtain, by Milan Kundera
Slowness, by Milan Kundera
Ignorance, by Milan Kundera
Art & Lies, by Jeanette Winterson
Written on the Body, by Jeanette Winterson
Sexing the Cherry, by Jeanette Winterson
The Powerbook, by Jeanette Winterson
Lighthousekeeping, by Jeanette Winterson
The Passion, by Jeanette Winterson
Gut Symmetries, by Jeanette Winterson
Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
Slapstick, by Kurt Vonnegut
Bluebeard, by Kurt Vonnegut
Timequake, by Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut
Poetry and Theatre
True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor, by David Mamet
“Invent nothing, deny nothing. Speak up, stand up.” These are the words of David Mamet, speaking to the actor, but just as well to all of us living and breathing, trying to make an honest, authentic way in the world. I encountered this no-nonsense guide to performing theater in my early twenties, and it has influenced my sense of “character”—not just on the stage, but in life. No audition required, just turn the page.
The Empty Space: A Book About the Theatre: Deadly, Holy, Rough, Immediate, by Peter Brook
Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, edited by Alfred Harbage
The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh
The Red Virgin: A Poem of Simone Weil, by Stephanie Strickland
Poets of Place: Selected Poems by St. Croix Valley Poets, Heidi Barr, Mike Forecki, Lee Kisling, Rosetta Peters, River Urke
Everything is Fucked, Everything is OK, edited by James Aviaz
Pablo Neruda Five Decades: Poems, 1925-1970, edited and translated by Ben Belitt
Text off the Page 2010 (MFA Writing Program SAIC)
Collected 2012 (MFA Writing Program SAIC)
Lunch Poems, by Frank O’Hara
The House of Belonging, poems by David Whyte
How to Love a Country, poems by Richard Blanco
Voices from the Margins, edited by Rhoda Rosen and Amanda Leigh Davis
That Little Something: Poems, by Charles Simic
Letter to Those Who Write Love Letters, and other Poems, by Joshua Benn Warner
Uncreative Writing, by Kenneth Goldsmith
Art Books
Walking as a Research Practice, edited by Lynn Gommes and Jana Sofie Liebe
This unique little book is actually meant to be held in one hand, and read while in the midst of walking, guiding you in your step forward and peer over the edge of its pages into the landscape. I invite you to explore this idea of walking as a research practice, borrow this book, and take a step out onto the trail, the grass, the uncharted path. Walk your way back upstairs and return it when you are done.
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, by Tricia Rose
Tiaras: Past and Present, by Geoffrey Munn
The Wonderful World of Dance, by Arnold L. Haskell
Don’t Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun & Marcel Moore, edited by Louise Downie
A Short Life of Trouble: Forty Years in the New York Art World, by Marcia Tucker
Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics, 1974-2007, by Suzanne Lacy
Silence: Lectures and Writings, by John Cage
The Art of Walking: A Field Guide, edited by David Evans
The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, by Diana Taylor
A Choreographer’s Handbook, by Jonathan Burrows
Handbook in Motion: An account of an ongoing personal discourse and its manifestations in dance, by Simone Forti
Are we here yet? By Meg Stuart
Documents of Contemporary Art: The Everyday, edited by Stephen Johnstone
Documents of Contemporary Art: Moving Image, edited by. Omar Kholeif
Documents of Contemporary Art: Situation, edited by Claire Doherty
Documents of Contemporary Art: The Archive, edited by Charles Merewether
Documents of Contemporary Art: Dance, edited by Andre Lepecki
Documents of Contemporary Art: Failure, edited by Lisa Le Feuvre
Art of the Twentieth Century: A Reader, edited by Jason Gaiger and Paul Wood
The Grid Book, by Hannah B Higgins
You are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, by Katharine Harmon
Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation, by Steve Dixon
Planes of Composition: Dance, Theory, and the Global, edited by Andre Lepecki and Jenn Joy
Barbara Kasten: Stages, by Alex Klein
Art and Electronic Media, by Edward A Shanken
100 Words for Water: A Projective Ecosocial Vocabulary, edited by Eva Franch i Gilabert, Mireia Luzarraga, and Alejandro Muino
Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols, by Henry Dreyfuss
Kites: Paper Wings over Japan, edited by Scott Skinner and Ali Fujino
I send you this Cadmium Red: A Correspondence between John Berger and John Christie
Participatory Autonomy, by Various Authors
Shotgun, edited by Jesus Vassallo with Ian Searcy
Moby Dick in Pictures: One Drawing for Every Page, by Matt Kish
Instructional
Hand Shadows, by Henry Bursill
Turn off the lights and strike up a spotlight (we have one in the basement!)—with this beautifully illustrated book you can explore the shapes and gestures your hands depict: a bird in flight, a goat, a bunny! But don’t stop there… embrace this invitation to dance with your hands and explore the images they create in the shadows.
Audels Handy Book of Practical Electricity with Wiring Diagrams: Ready Reference for Professional Electricians, Students, and All Electrical Workers, by Frank D. Graham
Book of Etiquette, by Lillian Eichler
Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet, by Gail Grant
Signal Flags, by Andrew W. German
French for Reading Knowledge, by Joseph Palmeri and E. E. Milligan
Herb’s Blue Bonnet Calls, Collected by H. F. Greggerson, Jr.
The Souls of Your Feet: A Tap Dance Guidebook for Rhythm Explorers, by Acia Gray
Championship Football Drills for Teaching Offensive and Defensive Fundamentals and Techniques, by Donald E. Fuoss
Dance Masters of America, Inc. Tap Syllabus
Miss Piggy’s Guide to Life, by Miss Piggy as told to Henry Beard
The Lady’s Stratagem, by Frances Grimble
Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore, by Patric Richardson with Karin B. Miller
Craft
Knots and Nets: The Various Types, How to Make Them and Practical Uses for Them, Various Authors
Our craft library needs some bulking up, so feel free to donate a book or two from your own archive, but in the meantime, what we do have in abundance is rope, yarn, twine, string—all good for exploring the world of knots and nets. This book, along with some friendly human instruction, will get you started exploring meshes, needles, batons, and various knots and their uses.
A Guide to Japanese Papermaking, by Donald Farnsworth
Crocheting in Plain English, by Maggie Righetti
The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs, by Linda P. Schapper
500 Crochet Stitches: The Ultimate Crochet Stitch Bible, St. Martin’s Press
Scribes and Illuminators: Medieval Craftsmen, by Christopher de Hamel
300 Papermaking Recipes, by Mary Reimer & Heidi Remer-Epp
Addiction
Courage to Change: One Day at a Time in Al-Anon II, edited by Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc.
This book of daily meditations is a cornerstone for friends and family members of those struggling with addiction. A page of words for every day of the year, simple wisdoms to remind us we didn’t cause it, we can’t control it, and we can’t cure it… but we can consider our own health and recovery and look to that.
Paths to Recovery: Al-Anon’s Steps, Traditions, and Concepts, edited by Al-Anon Family Groups
How Al-Anon Works, for Families & Friends of Alcoholics, edited by Al-Anon Family Groups
Addict in the Family: Stories of Loss, Hope, and Recovery, by Beverly Conyers
Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism (The Big Book), edited by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, In.
Mental Health
A Mood Apart: Depression, Mania, and Other Afflictions of the Self, by Peter C. Whybrow, M. D.
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, by Kay Redfield Jamison
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, by Kay Redfield Jamison
Why am I still depressed? Recognizing and Managing the Ups and Downs of Bipolar II and Soft Bipolar Disorder, by Jim Phelps, M.D.
Spiritual/Self Help
A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations, by Richard Rohr
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, by Richard Rohr
Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, by Richard Rohr
The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe, by Richard Rohr
The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book, by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Four Agreements Companion Book, by Don Miguel Ruiz
Calm, edited by The School of Life
How to Think More about Sex, by Alain de Botton
How to Be Alone, by Sara Maitland
How to Think about Exercise, by Damon Young
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, by Brene Brown, PhD, LMSW
Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, by Krista Tippett
An Apartment next to the Angels, by Melanie-Prejean Sullivan
The Way of Water and Sprouts of Virtue, by Sarah Allan
Waiting for God, by Simone Weil
Chinese Religion: An Introduction, by Laurence G. Thompson
All that is Made: A Guide to Faith and the Creative Life, edited by Alabaster
Watershed
River Cities
Ste. Genevieve: A Leisurely Stroll Through History, by Bill and Patti Naeger and Mark L. Evans
Itasca State Park, Photography by Dana Holm
The 1619 Project, The New York Times Magazine
The Confluence, A Publication of Linderwood University Press
Battle of Belmont, Missouri Humanities
French Colonial Fort De Chartres: A Journey in Time, by Tom Willcockson
The Pepin Odyssey, by Goran Pesic
Mississippi Headwaters Guidebook, by Molly MacGregor
Propser, Can You Tell Me More? The History of Acropolis, Ball Bluff, Blackberry, Bruce Siding, Feeley, Goodland, Island Farm, Jacobson, Leipold, Sago, Swan River, Warba and Wawina, by Leo Trunt
The Gordonville Grove: Stories of Tombstones, Tambourines & Tammany Hall, by Jerry Ford
The Great River: 400 Miles of the Mississippi, Stories and photographs from the Quad City Times
Nanou’s Promise: A Journey Beyond Hauling Water, Written and Illustrated by Sarah Drake (Saulk Rapids, MN)
Mississippi Headwaters Guide Book: A guidebook to the natural, cultural, scenic, scientific, and recreational values of the Mississippi River’s first 400 miles, by Molly MacGregor
Alma on the Mississippi: 1848-1932, by Barbara Anderson-Sannes
Memphis: Birthplace of Rock and Roll, by Robert W. Dye
Stillwater, by Brent T. Peterson
Disaster on the Mississippi: The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865, by Gene Eric Salecker
The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster, by Jerry O. Potter
To Live, to Create, to Inspire: How art saved my life, by Malcolm McCrae (Cape Girardeau, MO)
History of Elsberry, 1673-1955, by Clarence Canon
The Baker Street News, edited by Michael and Susan McClure (Chester, IL)
Itasca: Headwaters of the Mississippi River, text and photography by Peter Dyckman Hawkins
The Search for the Great River’s Source: An Account of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s Expedition to the Source of the Mississippi River—Lake Itasca, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Legendary East St. Louisans: An African American Series, by Reginald Petty and Tiffany Lee
Saving Ste. Genevieve: A Documentary of the Flood of 1993 (DVD)
The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (Nauvoo, IL)
The Legend of Zoey, by Candie Moonshower (Ridgely, TN)
The Alma Quarterly, edited by Lee Salisbury
A to Z: A Snapshot of the World in 26 Essays, by Bella Erakko (Hannible, MO)
“Whole” River
Blazing a Trail: The Uncovnentional Life of Harriet Hosmer, by Barbara Kailean Welsh
Paddle to the Amazon: The Ultimate 12,000-Mile Canoe Adventure, by Don Starkell (Grand Rapids, MN)
Exploring the St. Croix River Valley: Adventures on and off the Water, by Angie Hong
The Upper Mississippi Valley: How the Landscape Shaped Our Heritage, by William J. Burke
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how it Changed America, by John M. Barry
Meandering: Notes of Mississippi Riverlorian, by Mike Link & Kate Crowley
Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, by Fred Anderson
A Flood of Hope: It’s Ok to Believe, by R. Lane Wright (Nauvoo, IL)
Roadtrip with a Raindrop: 90 days along the Mississippi River, by Gayle Harper
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen E. Ambrose
Bicycling Guide to the Mississippi River Trail: A Complete Route Guide along the Mississippi River, by Bob Robinson
Thalweg: Well-known Secrets of the Evros River, by Ceminay Kara and Oguzhan Izmir
Longitude, by Dava Sobel
Mississippi Floods, by Anuradha Mathur and Dilip da Cunha
Political
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Mining the Heartland: Nature, Place and Populism on the Iron Range, by Erik Kojola
Locally Laid: How we built a plucky, industry-changing egg farm—from scratch, by Lucie B. Amundsen
The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South, by Elizabeth N. Ellis
Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell
A Thousand Ways Denied: The Environmental Legacy of Oil in Louisiana, by John T. Arnold
Louisiana
Madison Parish, by Richard P. Sevier
Rise of the Cajun Mariners: The Race for Big Oil, by Woody Falgoux
The Cajun Prairie: A Natural History, by Malcolm F. Vidrine
The Community Coffee Story: 1919-2009, by H. Norman Suarage, III
The History of Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, by Brian J. Costello
A Tourist’s Guide to West Feliciana Parish: A Little Bit of Heaven Right Here on Earth, by Anne Butler
Kenner, by Nick A. Congemi
An Untractable Country: The History of Kenner, Louisiana, by Craig A. Bauer
Along the River Road: Past and Present on Louisiana’s Historic Byway, by Mary Ann Sternberg
Louisiana Dayride: 52 Short Trips from New Orleans, Written and Illustrated by Shelley N. C. Holl
Judge L. H. Perez Memorial Park: A Guide, by John Chase
Paradise Faded: The Fight for Louisiana, a film by Jared Arsement (DVD)
Grandma was a Sailmaker: Tales of the Cajun Wetlands, by Verne Pitre
Coastal Sketches: Field notes & photos from “The End of the World”, by C. E. Richard
Louisiana Off the Beaten Path, by Jackie Sheckler Finch
Louisiana Off the Beaten Path: A guide to Unique Places, by Gay Martin
River Road Rambler: A Curious Traveler along Louisiana’s Historic Byway, by Mary Ann Sternberg
“The Changing Shape of Home: The future of Climate Migration and Receiving Communities,” 64 Parishes Magazine
Wings of Paradise: Birds of the Louisiana Wetlands, by Charlie Hohorst, Jr. with Marcelle Bienvenu
New Roads and Old Rivers: Louisiana’s Historic Pointe Coupee Parish, by Randy Harelson with Brian Costello
“Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast,” effective June 2, 2017, State of Louisiana
A Louisiana Coastal Atlas: Resources, Economies, and Demographics, by Scott Hemmerling
Around the Bend: A Mississippi River Adventure, by C. C. Lockwood