“Bookmark: A Collection of Items” by Ali Beaudett

Ali Beaudette, “Bookmark: A Collection of Items” (detail) 2017

“Bookmark: A Collection of Items” showcases miscellaneous objects that library patrons once used to mark their page in a book. Ali Beaudette, a Rhode Island librarian, assembled the quirky display hoping it might attract more locals to the library. She posted a simple TikTok video of the #contemporaryart installation to generate interest. It is one of 337.2 million contemporary art-themed posts on the social network platform, but racked up a substantial 160,000 likes, along with hundreds of comments.

In a recent Art News article, Beaudette reflects on why the memorabilia may strike a sentimental nerve with so many: “I’ve been trying to figure it why people responded so strongly to it,” she said. “On a really human level, I think people are very drawn to the tiny details of strangers’ lives, especially in this weird time where we have so much distance from each other.”

The bookmark collection is a vast reflection of a passing moment in time for so many of us.

Crafted lace artwork marks a page in a book

You are engrossed in a book. Life suddenly pulls you back to reality. You need a bookmark STAT. You grab the nearest item that will fit between the pages to save your place: a coupon, a photograph, an old  ticket stub or a hand-scribbled note. You saved your place in a pinch.

But what if you want to find that special placeholder again someday? Beaudette is not the only librarian to hold onto these keepsake items in case someone wants to reclaim them. A retiring colleague had gifted her items that spanned more than twenty years of stuff she had discovered inside borrowed books. Beaudette added to that pile of personal paraphernalia for several more years before she realized there was a beauty to behold in these upcycled treasures, and created and posted this innovative #artinstallation on TikTok.

Ali Beaudette, Bookmark: A Collection of Items (detail) 2017

These displayed objects as art remind us it is the little things in life that may mean the most. Those random thingamajigs not only marked a page but now mark a place in history for all to see.

When I die, I wonder what my collections of items left behind might reveal about my life. What treasure trove of little things did I decide to make important to me and why? It is at that moment when my family and friends will decide which petite prizes they might keep to cherish as their own, symbolically marking my place in time within their own lives. Or maybe even mark a page inside their book someday.

You can check out the video of “Bookmark: A Collection of Items” on TikTok. You can also immerse yourself further into the world of oddly-used page savers featured in a book: Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages.