Prelinger Library : Utopian Archive

The Prelinger library is an independent archive of periodicals, ephemera, maps and books in San Francisco, California. I conducted research on intentional communities, communes, and back to the land movements as a library resident in the summer of 2023. My research was focused on best-known periodicals related to the subject, such as Communities (a magazine by and for communitarians), The Whole Earth Catalogs (pre-internet resources for practical matters such as solar technologies), and the Foxfire series, a series of how-to references for back-to-the-land skills such as wood splitting, planting, quilting, and natural medicine.

The collected materials span over a decade and are selected to show some of the different issues that come up when we intend to embody radically, live intentionally, and work together towards positive social change. How do we manage issues of the old world that infiltrate our desire to build a new reality?


Installation as part of Tak Żyjemy / How we Live. Berlin, 2025

Bibliography:
CoEvolution quarterly
Whole Earth Catalog and magazine
Communities
Almanac of Healing
Mother Earth Magazine
FoxFire
The Alternative
The New Settler
The Modern Utopian
Vocations for Social Change
Workforce magazine