Chancebooks (2013)

Unique, chance-generated book objects
Print-on-demand
Perfect bound
Each in an edition of 1 (unique copies)

Chancebooks was a publishing-on-demand experiment using Wikipedia and chance operations. Each Chancebook was a one-of-a-kind assemblage of up to 100 randomly pulled articles from Wikipedia. The selection and sequence of content was generated in real-time as I repeatedly clicked the “random article” button that appears on all Wikipedia pages, and added each individual page to the book. The total number of articles was determined by pulling a random number (1–100) at random.org. The title is selected from the list of article titles.

Only one copy of each Chancebook exists, printed on-demand and delivered to me. The book’s design was automated and determined by the print-on-demand service. Included within each book are my location and exact date and time of the book’s creation.

Chancebook #1 (Why Does It Hurt So Bad) [39 articles, 124 pages] was created in Long Island City, New York, USA at 2:29pm on March 26, 2013 and delivered on March 29, 2013. The only printed copy in the edition is is held at Museum of Modern Art Library (LPW S673 A12 ch) as part of the Library of the Printed Web acquisition.

Chancebook #2 (Livin’ on the Fault Line) [86 articles] was created in Long Island City, New York, USA at 12:49pm on May 3, 2013 and delivered on May 8, 2013.