I still haven’t finished reading this one, despite working in bookshops for the past few years it seems to take me forever to actually finish reading a book. Perhaps it’s something to do with the fact that all my spare time is spent working in said bookshops (Eg: 40+ hour weeks). So far it is shaping up to be a useful and interesting book, outlining the various considerations that institutes must take into account and also about interiors and public patterns of navigation. I used to take this into consideration when visual merchandising and laying out the products in the gallery to further enhance sales, but for some reason hadn’t really applied this to exhibitions and similar spaces-something to remember for future events.

Published to mark the opening of the newly expanded Whitechapel Gallery in London, 2009, A Manual takes as its subject the role of the contemporary arts institution in the twenty-first century. Conceived as a contradictory project in thinking forward by looking back, the publication is structured as a room by room guide of the expanded Whitechapel Gallery. The book is divided into twelve sections. Each explores a different area of the Gallery, framing discussions about the development of contemporary art and institutional practice. Readers travel from the reception to the rooftop, encountering a series of galleries dedicated to the display of site-specific commissions, collections and temporary exhibitions. Likewise they visit the archive, education and retail facilities and consider the varied and vital roles that they play within publicly funded art organisations.

Twelve authors – artists, curators, academics and directors of international galleries and museums – trace a trajectory around each typology of space, using them as springboards for wider investigation. With contributions from Bruce Altshuler, Iwona Blazwick, Chris Dercon, Maria Fusco, Caro Howellm, Charles Merewether, Mark Nash, Brian O’Doherty, Niru Ratnam, Sukhdev Sandhu, Adam Szymcyzk, Nayia Yiakoumaki.