The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange

The Surplus Library functions as an idiosyncratic register of literature on the topic of affect and ecomomy. Concurrently, it embodies the subject of its holdings, facilitating quasi-economic, non-monetary exchanges trading on affect.

The Surplus Library on Affect & Economic Exchange operates on the assumption that its specific collection of books already exists in the material world: in the homes and private collections of countless individuals. Some of the holdings of this vast distributed library can become known and accessible through The Surplus Library website. The site develops as the library’s holdings and locations are registered by users.

The books’ content cannot be accessed online; instead, person-to-person borrowing and lending (owing and extending credit) in the physical world is facilitated by the site, thereby defying efficiency and convenience in its coupling of the material and the virtual.