Seeking lost libraries along the Silk Road

Abigail Reynolds plans a book incorporating images, texts and other documents originating from her experience, as well as moving-image works using her 16mm footage. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The artist even worked as a bibliographical citations assistant for the Oxford English Dictionary.

"I often think about communities of people and how these communities shift and change through time, how our ideals change, and the library for me is like a portrait of a community," she says.

Reynolds is now involved in a community group fighting to save her local library from closure.

"On the news, there are so many reports of the destruction of cultural sites in Iraq, like in Mosul and Palmyra, and I am aware of libraries being lost in Damascus," she says.

"So the sense of the loss of a library is something which is extremely contemporary but also ancient, and a subject that is very close to me at home in my personal life."

The result of her epic journey through 2,000 years of history and across much of the globe is Ruins of Time: Lost Libraries of the Silk Road, an exhibition at Art Basel earlier this year in Hong Kong.

She says her exploration is more important than ever following Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

"At the moment, I feel, particularly in the UK, that we are turning away from a lot of good decisions that were made, about being a part of the EU, about embracing otherness, becoming more liberal, more tolerant, more interested in differences," Reynolds says.

"All of these things are really important to me, in terms of my cultural identity. I feel dismayed that the wider culture that I belong to seems to be rejecting these principles that I think are so important."