Adjacent to the gallery, the Reading Room is a comfortable area for study and contemplation that offers an ongoing selection of art, artifacts and new, used and rare books for sale related to former Proteus themes such as travel, library and play. In addition, we sell books published by the Institute For Figuring, Ugly Duckling Presse, Place in History,  Purgatory Pie Press, Cabinet Magazine, and the Center for Book Arts.

In addition, the Reading Room offers seven independent archival projects including:

Proteotypes
The publishing arm of Proteus Gowanus, an interdisciplinary gallery and reading room in Brooklyn, New York. Proteus Gowanus develops exhibits of art, artifacts, objects and books around a yearlong theme. Related programs are held at the gallery throughout that year.

Karen Hewitt's Motorized Construction for Anonima

Fixer’s Collective
The Fixers Collective is a social experiment in improvisational fixing and mending that grew out of a yearlong exhibition at Proteus Gowanus entitled MEND.

Anonima
An archive of visual art, books, documents and ephemera from a 1960’s artist collaborative including Ernst Benkert, Frank Hewitt and  Ed Mieczkowski.

Blue Fire
This archival installation by Wendy Walker centers on a young British woman named Constance Kent, who in 1865 confessed to the brutal murder of her three year old half-brother. Kent’s detailed narrative, which inspired the first examples in two literary genres, true crime and sensation fiction, does not tally with the facts established by forensic evidence.

Reanimation Library

Reanimation Library
Developed by artist/librarian Andrew Beccone, the independent library serves artists, writers and other cultural archeologists.

Hall of the Gowanus
A mini-museum and store of art, artifacts and books related to the Gowanus Canal acknowledges our post-industrial neighbor and namesake as the site of the Revolutionary Battle of Brooklyn; a vital 19th century industrial canal; and the post-industrial polluted waterway and inspiration for artists and writers that it is today. We invite you to help us expand our collection by emailing us ideas for Gowanus-related art, artifacts, books and weblinks. We are interested in an interdisciplinary array of material relating to Gowanus history, art, ecology (past and present) and urban exploration. We are compiling a list for possible inclusion in an expanded Hall of the Gowanus in the future.

Museum of Matches
Developed by artist Sasha Chavchavadze, the Museum of Matches project explores the Cold War through an evolving array of visual art, narrative prose, documents, photographs, memorabilia and publications.

Morbid Anatomy

Morbid Anatomy Library
Developed by Joanna Ebenstein, Morbid Anatomy is a project begun in 2007 to survey the interstices of art and medicine, death and culture. The library is usually open by appointment only.

Oulipo
A library and bookstore of books related to the French literary movement, Oulipo, founded in 1960. Oulipian writing involves composing text according to constraints (rules) that are invented and arbitrary. Writers are compelled to say what they had never thought to say in ways they never would have chosen to say it. It is a method for making sense differently; for escaping old or ready-made ideas, subjects, and formulations; for creating many and various alternative realities and discovering what is true in them.

Observatory
A new exhibition/classroom/event space run by a group of seven artists and bloggers. The space seeks to present programming inspired by the 18th century notion of “rational amusement” and is especially interested in topics residing at the interstices of learning and amusement, art and science, and history and curiosity. The space hosts screenings, lectures, classes and exhibitions.