Library

The Magenta House Library is a tender space to read, discover, and connect. Forage through 2,100 items spotlighting visual art, food cultures, architecture, fiction, poetry, fashion, the supernatural, digital art & more. Our shelves carry a mix of new titles and out-of-print and rare publications in the form of books, zines, art-book objects, pamphlets, chapbooks, booklets, and interactive texts. 

The Library is open to the public by appointment during open days, booked events and Shop pop-up hours. We’re a non-lending reading room. This enables us to properly maintain the items and offer immediate access. We’re open to considering loans or donations of books of arts & cultural significance; please hit us up. 

Why did we start a shared reading room? The Library arose from the merged personal collection of its Housekeepers (Mariam & Mason), who are bibliophiles at heart. After decades of collecting books across the world and recommending books to people we meet, we decided to create a purpose-built library in our homespace to share our publications in all their tactile, typographical and dog-eared wonder. 

We believe access to books is a universal right and that shared knowledge leads to bright assemblies of thought, action and liberation. Common visitors to our library include artists, writers, students, scientists,academics, cooks, designers, researchers, and entrepreneurs.

This Library is self-funded, with pennies from our freelance jobs going towards purveying books. We buy from independent sellers, art book fairs, second-hand shops, independent publishing houses and arts spaces across the world–with a predominant focus on the Asia Pacific region. We’re also caretakers of long-term book loans or items kindly donated by individuals, collectives and organisations. Many titles are either limited editions, uniquely-made, or are unavailable in certain countries. We also platform new and reprinted titles popular within the arts sector. Alongside this, we run Magenta House Shop, which stocks a capsule collection of books and products that explores food cultures, experimental publishing and heritage ventures. 

Head to our contact page to contact us for a Library visit.