Book Timeline _{2010 - 2019}

2010 : Dream Villa is published by Steidl.

2011 : House of Love is published by Radius Books. Singh launches the House of Love book-cart at her House of Love exhibition at Nature Morte, New Delhi. She takes the book-cart to the India Art Fair in January 2012. The book-cart at the art fair has 20 unique covers.

2013 : File Room is published by Steidl.

File Room is exhibited as a book-object at the 55th Venice Biennale, where Singh is one of four artists shown at the German Pavilion. A new form developed by Singh, the book-object is created by placing the File Room book into a wooden structure fashioned to its exact size specifications. The structure allows the book to slide in and out (thus allowing the book to be taken out and read) whilst also functioning as a device with which to exhibit the book on the wall. It is an intervention that disrupts the separation between art object and mass-produced object, allowing Singh’s book to exist as both simultaneously.

During the opening, renowned curator Okwui Enwezor releases the File Room book outside the exhibition from the File Room book-cart. Patrons could acquire the book from Singh at the entrance of the exhibition and then enter the pavilion to see the same File Room shown as a book-object on the wall.

In April, the File Room book-museum is shown in How to Make a Book with Steidl, an exhibition of Steidl works at the Daelim Museum, Seoul. The Kyoto Museum of Modern Art purchases 72 File Room books to show as an exhibition in Reading Cinema, Finding Words: Art after Marcel Broodthaers, which opens in September.

Singh premieres Museum Bhavan, her travelling family of nine wooden museums, at Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer, her solo exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, London. Zakir Hussain, Sent a Letter, File Room book-object, File Room book-cart and House of Love book-cart are also shown in this exhibition.

2014 : Singh creates the File Room Book-case by hinging five File Room book-objects together and placing them in a leather case. She launches the book-case at the Jaipur Literature Festival and later offers it in an edition of seven.

Singh shows the File Room book-object at the Kriti Gallery, Varanasi. She installs the exhibition as if it were a traditional silver gelatin print show, in the same plan and layout as her Go Away Closer exhibition at the same venue held a few years prior.

File Room book-museum and Sent a Letter are shown at the National Museum, New Delhi.

Museum of Chance is published by Steidl. Museum of Chance is unusual in that it has 44 different covers, created by pairing the 88 images from within the book. The square 120-mm
images were placed on the front covers and the rectangular 35-mm images on the back. 88 Museum of Chance books are shown on the wall during Dayanita Singh: Go Away Closer at the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt. Here the book becomes the exhibition. Singh shows and offers the first set of 88 Museum of Chance book-object editions at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai. She installs and lights them as she would silver gelatin prints.

2015 : Singh shows and offers a second set of 88 editions of the Museum of Chance book-objects at the India Art Fair, New Delhi,in January. Singh creates the furniture in the installation specifically for this exhibition.

Singh shows and offers a third set of 44 Museum of Chance book-objects at Arts & Science, Tokyo, in March, and a fourth set of 44 at Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art in Venice in May. Singh creates a museum shop within her exhibition Conversation Chambers at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi. The museum shop offered multiples, including Parkett editions and the Museum of Chance book-object editions. Singh’s manifesto for the museum of the future is published in Tate Etc.

2016 : Singh shows a full set of 44 Museum of Chance book-objects in an exhibition at the Hawa Mahal palace during the Jaipur Literature Festival.

Singh shows and offers a fifth set of 44 editions of the Museum of Chance book-objects at the Dhaka Art Summit in February.

Suitcase Museum is shown for the first time at the 20th Biennale of Sydney. It is shown at Frith Street Gallery, London, later in the year. Suitcase Museum contains a full set of 44 Museum of Chance book-objects held in two suitcases and is made in an edition of three. Subsequently, Suitcase Museum is shown in Singh’s exhibition Suitcase Museum at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai. It is also shown in Museum of Machines, an exhibition held at Fondazione MAST, Bologna.

Singh creates the Museum of Shedding, which is shown at Frith Street Gallery, London. It is subsequently shown at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum (2016, as shown in the corresponding image), the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2017) and the 15th Istanbul Biennial (2017).

Singh launches Spontaneous Books, her own publishing imprint. Its first publication is Kochi Box, an unbound book of 30 image cards held together in a wooden structure that is built to allow the collector to change the front image as often as they like. Kochi Box was printed in an edition of 360 and could only be acquired through its exhibition format. It was launched, exhibited and sold at the Malabar House, Kochi.

2017 : Museum Bhavan is published by Steidl. Its 3,000 individual boxes are made and shipped from India. Singh takes Museum Bhavan on a book tour to several book shops across Europe. It is also shown at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai (2016); Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa (2017, as shown in the corresponding image); India Art Fair, New Delhi (2017); Museum of Innocence, Istanbul (2017); Chobi Mela, Dhaka (2019); Gallery White, Baroda (2019); Off the Wall, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2021); as well as in several private homes.

Go Away Closer is shown as a book on the wall alongside its corresponding set of 40 silver gelatin prints in the collection display at Tate Modern, London.

2018 : Singh places Museum Bhavan in the vitrines of Satramdas Dhalamal Jewellers in Kolkata, replacing her ten-year-long exhibition of Sent a Letter in the same vitrines. Myself Mona Ahmed is shown as a book on the wall alongside Singh’s video Mona and Myself in Another Kind of Life, an exhibition at the Barbican Centre, London. Singh’s work Pothi Khana is shown at the Carnegie International, 57th Edition.

Pothi Box is published by Spontaneous Books. It is launched, exhibited and sold in My Offset World at Callicoon Fine Arts, New York. My Offset World is the first exhibition that features all of Singh’s book-objects in one venue. Pothi Box is shown on the wall, as well as being wrapped and lying on a table in the middle of the gallery. The Museum of Chance book-object is shown on the wall at the far end of the room, File Room Book-case is shown on a table to the right and My Life as a Museum, Singh’s nine-pocket jacket, is hung on the wall above it. Box of Shedding is published by Spontaneous Books. Inspired by the Museum of Shedding, it is launched, exhibited and sold at the Malabar House, Kochi.

2019 : BV Box is published by Spontaneous Books. It is launched, exhibited and sold at Gallery White, Baroda, and is subsequently shown at Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art, Venice.

Box 507 is published by Spontaneous Books. It is launched, exhibited and sold at Barefoot, Colombo, and subsequently at Frith Street Gallery, London, and Giorgio Mastinu Fine Art, Venice. Museum of Chance is shown in Surrounds: 11 Installations at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Zakir Hussain Maquette is published by Steidl.