The Book Ritual

An interactive art-piece played using a real-world book of your choice. 

Write in your book to tell it about yourself. Deface its pages in creativity exercises, so that your book can understand you. Tear out pages to keep the conversation going, as it reveals to you how it came to be and why it wants to know you.

The Book Ritual is about dealing with loss and accepting change. It is about coming to terms with decisions that can’t be undone, and the souvenirs which will lose their meaning to time.

What you use to dispose of pages is up to you, the player

• Play with a standard office shredder
• Play with your own waste-paper bin
• Build your own USB-connected shredder with the instructions included

The Book Ritual can be played at home on your own, or set up at an exhibition, with visitors collaboratively transforming a book, each shred being a souvenir of a stranger's personal experience.

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Article:Reflections on making The Book Ritual

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Nominee: Most Creative Game - PLAY 18, Hamburg
Official Selection: Leftfield Collection - EGX 2018, Birmingham
Official Selection: Alt-Ctrl GDC - Game Developers Conference 2019, San Francisco
Honourable Mention: A MAZE 2019, Berlin