Bibliothèque Intérieure’

Bibliothèque Intérieure’

Volume 1

a group exhibition

Bibliothèque Intérieure

Volume I

Curated by Nico Kos Earle

To emphasise this sartorial link, this exhibition considers ideas as garments; layered, tailored, worn in, and reshaped over time. Just as a beloved coat bears the imprint of its wearer, each artwork is informed by the lived materials of its maker: images held onto, anecdotes repeated, fabrics touched, memories revisited. The installation unfolds like a wardrobe opened in confidencerevealing what is usually folded away, half-remembered, or privately adored.

The exhibition brings together works by Tiffanie Delune, Marie Elisabeth Merlin, Eric Kaiser, Jackson Dickstein, Clara Claus, Aisha Christison, Jack Burton, Rebecca Taber, and jardin verre (Jean Priol). During the making of Bibliothèque Intérieure, each artist invited another to participate - a gesture that mirrors how influence moves: quietly, relationally,

Bibliothèque Intérieure is an Exhibition conceived as an inner library — a personal archive of sensibility. It evokes the invisible shelf each of us carries within, holding stories, sensations, images, and objects that accumulatively shape our ways of seeing. Memorised poems, films we have wept through, garments softened by years of wear, or the scent of a perfume that summons an entire summer — these fragments coexist in an intimate, unspoken collection. Like a wardrobe that leads to a hidden world, these memories give our imagination texture, colour, and emotional residue. For many artists, the act of collecting is inseparable from the act of making. Studios often resemble attics or dressing rooms of thought — spaces where fabrics, fragments, notes, and images are held not out of utility, but intuition. Often gathered unconsciously, such visual scraps, found photographs, textiles, overheard words, and personal relics tell their own story. This tactile and mnemonic process of accumulation is central to Bibliothèque Intérieure and mirrors the working philosophy of the exhibition’s founder, Sir Paul Smith, whose practice has long embraced collecting as a creative instinct.

and often invisibly. The result is not a fixed sequence but a constellation of interconnected sensibilities, shaped by shared affinities as much as individual practice.

Extending beyond the exhibition space, the accompanying catalogue offers a more intimate register. Each artist contributes a selection of their favourite things (talismanic objects, threadbare garms, and sensory fragments) revealing intimate details about their creative lives. Seen alongside their artwork, these personal inventories give a glimpse into the private, curated spaces where art is both imagined and produced.

Bibliothèque Intérieure invites viewers to reflect on what they hold most dear, and the subtle strategies we use to hold on to memories through things, which in turn shape what we create and how we are remembered.

Nico Kos Earle

Nico Kos Earle Curator

Nico Kos Earle is a writer, curator and filmmaker whose practice centres on connection—between people, place and the natural world—across physical and digital realms. Based in the UK, she leads an independent curatorial practice producing artist-led projects with charities, brands, galleries and institutions. Recent curatorial work includes UN GESTE, A GESTURE, UN GESTO, the first international solo exhibition for Rebecca Brodskis with the AMMA Foundation in Mexico, and Little Fires and Bibliothèque Intérieure for Paul Smith, London. She conceived and curates the BLUE Edition series (2017–present) with the Blue Marine Foundation, aligning contemporary art with ocean conservation; works by Chris Levine from this programme have been selected for the Science Museum’s forthcoming Ocean exhibition (2027). Nico was nominated Vice Chair of the Critics’ Circle and writes regularly for Artlyst and IMPULSE. Her publications include monographs for Joost Vandebrug (Cinci Lei), Jeff Becton and Emma Witter, The Lost Trees (Garden Museum), and writing for This Is What You Get (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). She also produces artist films and live interviews for online and in-gallery presentation.

Eric Kaiser

‘The reflected image is a gateway into the viewer’s inner library. A sort of gateway through which reality takes on a phantasmagorical form, where forgotten sensations are rewritten and from which a few delicious fragments of the past are revealed.’

Eric's Inner Library

Favourite Music: M people, Alison Moyet, Adele, Etienne Daho, Take that.

Favourite Movies: Shakespeare in love, Neverland, The Sixth Sense, Brokeback Mountain, wicked.

Favourite Books: La Maison Vide (Laurent Mauvignier), le petit galopin de nos corps (Yves Navarre), Leurs enfants après eux (Nicolas Mathieu).

Favourite Painters: Mickael Boormans, Neo Rauch, Peter Doig, John Singer Sargent, Katherine Keho.

Favourite Food: Digestive Biscuits & Dark Chocolate.

Reflexion No.12 2025

Eric Kaiser

Trained in Paris and exhibited widely since the early 2000s, Kaiser completed a master’s degree in arts and Cultures at the University of Lorraine, attended classes at the Nancy School of Fine Arts as an external auditor, spent part of his time each year in Leipzig to refine his practice, and, together with a group of artists from Nancy, founded Les Ateliers des Sœurs Macarons. In 2015, he was selected to represent the city of Nancy at the exhibition “Hommage à Karlsruhe,” held from 21 May to 5 July 2015 at the Regierungspräsidium on Rondellplatz in Karlsruhe (Germany), and to present his work at the International PyeongChang Biennale in South Korea from 23 July to 11 August 2015. In 2022, Kaiser moved to Malta, where he continues his artistic practice with a focus on contemporary painting. His latest solo exhibition, ‘Smuggler,’ took place in 2025 at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Malta.

Tiffanie Delune

‘Approaching my work with playfulness and an intuitive curiosity, I create multilayered pieces on cotton canvas, loose linen and smaller pieces of paper; inviting for a dialogue between the scale and the subject. Letting go of any inhibitions in the choice of materials, I choose them for their textures and meaning — from acrylic, spray paint, oil pastels and papercuts to glitter and threads. In a conflicted world that feels deeply saturated, I put a special emphasis on sharing a blended narrative in all its depth and beauty.’

Tiffanie's Inner Library

Favourite Band: Sade

Favourite Author: Maya Angelou

Favourite Poet: Rainer Maria Rilke

Favourite Clothing: A dress from Simone Rocha or Cecilie Bahnsen

Favourite Taste: The flavours of Japanese cuisine

Tiffanie Delune

Born in Paris, France (1988), Delune lives and works in Montpellier, France. In addition to multiple group shows, recent solo shows include The Geography Of Feelings, Gallery 1957, London, UK, 2024, There’s Gold On The Palms Of My Hands, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana, 2023, See Me Flowing, Band Of Vices, Los Angeles, USA, 2022, There’s Gasoline In My Heart, Foreign Agent, Lausanne, Switzerland, 202 and Seeds Of Light, Curated by Katherine Finerty, Ed Cross Fine Art, London, UK, 2020.

Rebecca Taber

‘Working in painting, drawing and film, Taber’s work is largely concerned with the process of transformation & evolving states of being. From dark to light. The essential elements of life are very important to her practice and also the materiality using either paint, ink or film to portray the essence of being human. Enveloping the viewer and inviting them to dance in the light.’

Rebecca's Inner Library

Favourite Book: The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Favourite Piece of Clothing: Studio overalls

Favourite Music: Nina Simone, Feeling Good whilst dreaming of gardens, and eating some dates with coffee.

Favourite Food: Toast & Butter

Rebecca Taber

Rebecca Taber is a British Artist 1976 born in London UK, living and working in Pau France. Taber has shown extensively in the UK, Europe and USA. Represented between 2005-2009 by Nettie Horn Gallery, showing at Miami ArtBasel 2008, recipient of Artist of Exceptional Achievement Award by California Arts Council 2009. Residencies include – Hickster Projects Rome & Siena 2018, Siena Arts Institute 2010, KALA Arts Institute Oakland California,USA 2008, Can Serrat, Barcelona, 2007. Recent exhibitions include, The Gift Giver, Salon des Muses, Paris 2022, Studio Baustelle, Berlin 2018, Westminster Houses of Parliament, Make a Mark 30 British Female Painters, Barry Bliss Filmaker 2019, Proud Archivist Gallery, Haggerston London sponsored by R&V Foundation, Poet in the City, National Poetry Day 2016. Collections include, Siena Art Institute

Siena Founded by Getty Family and Coca-Cola Foundation UK.

Marie Elisabeth Merlin

“Petits Mondes (little worlds)” IS series that stands apart from Merlin’s large and medium format paintings. Circular in format, these images are coherent, selfcontained, and absent from any danger. We cannot enter these little bubbles; they are the painted equivalent of wormholes and exist in a parallel universe. They speak to the artist’s need to paint through her innermost thoughts, without being disturbed. Each one resolves like a poem – the shimmer of water on a swimmer’s back, the tilt of wings as they reach for the sky – we look at them, but we cannot access them.’

Marie's Inner Library

Favourite Art: Michelangelo ' s Pieta and the Sistine Chapel, when I was 11, in Rome—and the whole atmosphere of Italy - Hokusai, Caravaggio, Manet, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Klimt, Gauguin, Bonnard and Vuillard, Cezanne, Munch, Braque, Basquiat, Per Kirkeby, Hockney... and so many other sublime artists… Also comic books and manga. The photographs of Martha Cooper, Vincent Munier, and Martin Parr (one of his photos inspired the small oval "Ciel Vert"). The myth of Pandora ' s Box.

Favourite Poetry: Arthur Rimbaud, Blaise Cendrars and Japanese haiku; Marguerite Yourcenar, "L ' ceuvre au Noir"; Amélie Nothomb; Stephen King, “La Tempête du siècle”; “La Première Gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules” by Philippe Delerm; La Moustache by Emmanuel Carrère; Le Roman de Vassilis by Basile Panurgias; “La Péninsule aux 24 saisons” by Mayumi Inaba.

Favourite Movie: from Pulp Fiction to Une vie (A Woman ' s Life), The Zone of Interest, Sweet Bean (Les Délices de Tokyo)… Out of Africa, Hitchcock films, Blue Jasmine, Tim Burton films, and the ones I watched with my son - our "popcorn moments" - Hayao Miyazaki films, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter.

Favourite Music: Chopin—the Nocturnes (played by Maria João Pires)—has accompanied me. I paint in silence, but... otherwise music and/or the radio are with me.

Favourite Clothing: My niece Margot made a kimono jacket in wool cloth with a silk lining. I love it…

Favourite Food: Something simple like a fried egg, a garden tomato with basil and olive oil and a hint of salt—happiness!

Oil

46 x 38cm, (F 51 x 43cm)

€1520 inc VAT

Marie Elisabeth Merlin

Marie-Elisabeth Merlin (b. 1968) obtained her Diplôme de l’École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix (1988 – 1989) École Stylisme IICC, Marseille, following three years (1985 – 1988) Ateliers Beaux-Arts, Ateliers Privés Aix, Paul Cezanne’s birthplace. Winner of the 9th Paul Ricard Painting Symposium (2018), collectors include Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Charles Saatchi and Paul Ricard among others worldwide. Solo shows include ‘Mondes Hypothétique’, TIN MAN ART, London (2023); ‘Imagined Worlds’, Galerie de la Prévôté, Aix-en-Provence, France (2021) and ‘Il était une fois’ (2020); ‘Apparitions’ Château du Seuil, Aix Puyricard (2013); ‘Inhabited-uninhabited’, Château du Seuil, Puyricard, (2012) and numerous international exhibitions and art fairs.

Jean Priol

jardin verre

“…I heard them, squatting by the wayside, In September twilights, there I felt the dew Drip on my forehead, like a fierce coarse wine.

Where, rhyming into the fantastic dark, I plucked, like lyre strings, the elastics Of my tattered shoes, a foot pressed to my heart.”

‘My Bohemia: A Fantasy’ - Arthur Rimbaud

Jean's Inner Library

Favourite Poetry: Ma Bohème (Arthur Rimbaud)

Favourite Book: Bibliography of Marcel Pagnol

Favourite Film: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003), City Lights (1931)

Favourite Artist: Luigi Serafini

Favourite Music: Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru

Favourite Food: Pasta al forno

Favourite Clothing: Wool balaclava knitted by Benny

Comfort moment of the day: Dusk

Priol

It was on a journey to Jordan, that Jean Priol discovered the art of glassmaking through Abu Faisal, an artisan in Amman. Enchanted by his approach to the material, he remained and worked alongside him for six months. Returning to Séguret, the village where he grew up in France, he established jardin verre, a circular design project that explores the transformation of industrial glass. Beginning as a series of decorative and tableware objects—single-stem vases, drinking glasses, coffee cups, and ashtrays - he then joined les Ateliers Lautard, in Marseille and began to explore sculpture and lighting through a series of one-of-a-kind pieces. Stepping into his creative freedom, each new object emerged through the unexpected dialogue between the materials past life and its present articulation - function following form.

Jackson Neimeth Dickstein

‘Working broadly across different plastic and dry media, Jackson Neimeth Dickstein’s work seeks to form a union between the raw familiarity of unfettered mark making, calculated yet uninhibited use of color, and pointed observations on the myriads of stories, trials, and paradigms surrounding the subject of upbringing; that of his own and those close to him. His depictions of social phenomena, the natural world, and the internal world recall styles often found in folk art. Also working as an art teacher, his work balances playful abandon and uncensored subjectivity. As with folkloric storytelling, characters are unbound by linear restrictions, and his work merges physical and metaphysical qualities to form a tangible yet surreal vision.’

Jackson's Inner Library

Favourite Music, Book and Food: The White album must be there, and as soon as it finishes playing, I open Fear of Flying by Erica Jong and re-read a few chapters. Ideally this is followed (or accompanied) by a bowl of Matzoh Ball soup.

Favourite Clothing: In a small bag in my closet at my mother’s house I keep what is effectively a clothing cemetery, pieces worn to such bits that they’ve been laid to rest. As I sit in my library, I sport my faded white t-shirt displaying the skyline of Mexico City.

Below the skyline sits in block lettering: ' MEXICO ' that is filled in by red and green Paisley. 70 ' s I think; never has a shirt come close to this one, I feel utterly at home in it.

6;15 AM 2025

Coloured pencil on paper

21 x 29.5 cm

€845 inc VAT

Lovers, Former, In Or Near The Mountain 2024

Jackson Neimeth Dickstein

Jackson Neimeth Dickstein (1997) was born in San Francisco, California. He has spent time in Santa Fe & Rio Arriba County, New Mexico & Mexico City and is currently based in Marseille.His work has been exhibited in the U.S., Mexico, & France. In addition to his own practice Jackson has spent over a decade educating children in the arts. Including a period of over three years instructing students in contemporary art in Northern New Mexico public schools where he drew local media attention for his efforts.

Clara Claus

‘Living beings possess various tools to apprehend their environment. Yet our senses limit us to certain modes of perception, leaving a large part of the phenomena around us invisible. How can we give form to a reality that surpasses us, so that a trace or a reflection may materialize? Through my artistic research, nourished by reflections on the invisible, I attempt to capture the ways in which the world under its multiple forms, whether physical, psychic, or social reveals itself to our sensitivity or eludes it.’

Clara's Inner Library

Favourite Music : Ines Bacán, Erika de Casier, Felicia Atkinson, Atahualpa Yupanqui

Favourite Films : Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho), Clara Sola (Nathalie Álvarez Mesén), If I had legs I’d kick you (Mary Bronstein), The Cave of the Golden Rose (Fantaghirò - Lamberto Bava), Ines ma sœur (Carole Fierz), Summer 1993 (Carla Simon), The Wonders (Alice Rohrwacher).

Favourite Books : Theory and Play Of The Duende by Federico Garcia Lorca, Les forces by Laura Vasquez, Le retour du monde magique by Fanny Charasse, The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk, Prélude de Pan et autres nouvelles by Jean Giono.

Favourite Artists : Etel Adnan, Vivian Suter, Sam Gilliam, Paulina Peavy

Favourite Food : Homemade buckwheat bread and preserved lemons, and homemade chocolate and yogurt mousse with salt and olive oil

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Acrylic and Spraypaint on paper 21 x 29.7cm, (F: 30 x 40 cm)

€610 inc VAT

Clara Claus is a visual artist whose work explores the invisible zones of reality and the phenomena that elude our senses. Trained in France, and later in the United States, where she spent twelve years, she grounds her practice in a dialogue between Cartesian rationality and cultures attuned to immaterial worlds. Through painting, drawing, performance, writing, and video, she seeks to capture the evanescent traces of life, memory, and the beyond. Her works emerge from intuitive protocols—oracles, breathwork, automatic writing—invoking the diffuse presences that haunt the density of the real. She thus shapes diluted, dreamlike images in which elemental forces and imaginary cosmologies intertwine.

Aisha Christison

“My work starts with an encounter. The presence of something, someone that would not ordinarily belong in the scene. This encounter and the ensuing tension is the essence of the work. I’m interested in this moment, like deja vu or a poignant dream, where we are reminded of an essential knowing that we have since forgotten. It is an invocation of the numinous, a little glimpse through the veil.”

Aisha's Inner Library

Favourite Music: The Barry Lyndon movie soundtrack, it was weirdly my favourite film as a child. I liked the scene of the soldier marching to The British Grenadiers by John Williams.

Favourite Movie: Bruce Chatwin ' s ' On the Black Hill ' , the scene at the end with the brothers flying into the beyond with their little plane has penetrated deep into my psyche.

Favourite Clothing: A burgundy jacket handed down to me by my aunt. Whose frays and tears add to its character. I daren ' t wear it for fear of depleting its magical force.

Flammable Substance 2025

Christison

Aisha Christison (b. 1989, Margate, UK) is a British-Filipina artist and a graduate of Chelsea College of Art (2012). Her work has been exhibited widely across Europe, including exhibitions at the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris), Eigen + Art (Leipzig), Bold Gallery (Prague), Hurst Contemporary (London), Coulisse Gallery (Stockholm), Mauve (Vienna), and Damien and the Guru (Brussels).

Jack Burton

“I go to the studio and start to pretend to make art, and it’s very awkward and embarrassing, but then, thank god! This other man takes over. I don’t really notice the transition, but pretty soon it’s the end of the day, and this other guy has made something far better than I could have, and all I need to do is make enough money and time and space available for him to make my work. So actually a big part of my art practice is showing up to my job on a Monday, sending invoices, getting enough sleep, tidying the studio, and then getting out of the way of myself.”

Jack's Inner Library

Favourite books: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott, Blindsight by Peter Watts, Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Book Of Taliesin translated by Gwyneth Lewis and Rowan Williams, A Place of

Greater safety by Hilary Mantel, The Recognitions by William Gaddis, Theatre of the Imagination by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Favourite music: Leonard Cohen, Cerys Mathews, Steeleye Span, Lucian Moriyama, Gnom, Joni Mitchell, Jpegmafia, Jenny Hval, The Roots, Jockstrap, Death ' s Dynamic Shroud, John Renbourn, Billy Woods, FKA twigs, Meilyr Jones, Caroline Polachek, 100 gecs, SOPHIE, Danny Brown, CASISDEAD, Keith Jarrett, Orchestra Baobab

direct print on aluminum, beech, wax, fabric

24 x 32 x 5 cm

€1900 inc VAT

Kitsch ii 20256

Existence And Yet More Existence 2024

direct print on aluminium, teak, wax polish 34 x 26 x 6 cm €1900 inc VAT

Gathering at the Commune 2024

direct print on aluminium, teak veneered wood, wax polish

30 x 34 x 6 cm

€1900 inc VAT

Jack Burton

Born 1988, Barry, South Wales, now lives in Brussels, Belgium. Burton holds a Ba Fine Art, Chelsea College of Art and Design, 2001-2010, Mres Cultural Studies and the Humanities, The London Consortium, 2011-2012, and a PGdip Fine Art, The Royal Academy Schools, London, 2014-2017. Recent solo exhibitions include Cynic’s Bedtime, Balazsi Gallery, Mallorca, 2025; BRICO JACK, 10n, Brussels, 2023; Music For An Exhibition Vol. 1, The Gimp, Berlin, 2022; Long Distance Highway Hotel, Mauve, Vienna, 2022; Must Everything Go?, Cunst-link, Brussels, 2022; Thank You, thank You, Merci, Bedankt, Pepper’s Ghost & Menowski, Brussels, 2021, and a vast catalogue of group shows including Memory Palace in Ruins, C-Lab, Taipei, 2023. You can follow his Instagram @jackfrburton

Paul Smith Space, found downstairs at 9 Albemarle Street, is a dedicated gallery presenting artwork which resonates with the company’s ethos of creativity, individuality, and curiosity. A full programme of exhibitions will see Paul Smith Space change periodically throughout the year, each time introducing an exciting new array of work.

For all art enquiries please contact:

art@paulsmith.co.uk

Katie Heller

Art & Exhibitions Manager katie.heller@paulsmith.co.uk

Audrey Dennis Gallery Assistant audrey.dennis@paulsmith.co.uk

Paul Smith

9 Albemarle Street

London W1S 4BL

+44 (0)7553 352 959

+44 (0) 207 493 4565