Artist Tim Youd’s intention to become a better reader goes to extremes, and typewriters are key to this endeavor, called The 100 Novels Project. Youd is on course not only to read one hundred novels but also to retype them—each on a single page atop another sheet.
“There are only so many books we get to read in our lives, and that’s upsetting,” he said. “I’m trying to do my best with my chance to read as many as I can as closely as I can.”
Youd’s three-pronged approach combines literary, performance, and visual art. With his retyping of each page of a novel, the paper in his typewriter grows ink-soaked and tattered, and Youd patches it to continue. When his process concludes, the top sheet is a blur of letters, the novel condensed like a black hole. Youd frames what resembles a literary Rorschach test alongside the under-sheet bearing the typewriter keys’ imprint. The result is a diptych reminiscent of an open book.
“It’s like a drawing of a novel,” said Youd, who launched his project in 2013. Aside from the clatter of keys, typewriters offer Youd more than any computer keyboard could. He added, “That connection to the actual making of the mark is like holding a pencil or pen or paintbrush.”
