The Book Seeker
$20.00
18″ x 36″ acrylics on canvas. 2017. Part of Justin Hillgrove’s 2017 exhibition “Well Read.” The show focused on storytelling, books and reading.
“The Book Borrower”
or “Gilbert Gruff’s Dream” (part 1)
Gilbert McGruff had been on this particular hunt for most of his life. He was seeking a book, the PERFECT book. He’d followed the old, wise woman’s directions to the letter and had found the entrance right where she said it would be. And now here were the stairs. She had said the stairs went on for many stories but he hadn’t realized just how literal her words would prove to be.
At first he descended slowly, reading the titles adorning each “step”, but Gilbert soon realized that every one was a book he had already read. Unsettled because this place seemed to know too much about him, he fixed his eyes forward and continued his descent, trying to ignore the sounds of shuffling papers and sliding books echoing in the darkness around him.
