M.L. Van Nice’s (b. 1945) intelligent and whimsical installation The Library at Wadi Ben Dagh uses the book as an artistic medium to produce an insightful response in the visitor. Visually translating such popular titles as Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Joyce’s Ulysses, and Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil, Van Nice allows the visitor to see the books and the ideas they contain in a new light.

The Library is an entire world unto itself - a private book collection of Woman Doe, who has since departed Wadi Ben Dagh. According to Van Nice, “She is Woman because she is nurturer—has given birth … to the library; she is Doe because historically women have … remained anonymous.”

Woman Doe has thoughtfully selected each work, reflecting her experience of the world. Therefore, the library does not have structure beyond the personal. As Van Nice explains, the library “certainly does not, could not, and would not care to … satisfy a Mr. Dewey. Woman Doe created categories that structure her reality, and maybe ours.” The “logic” of her system is described by recollections, associations, deductive reasoning, and curiosity.

Van Nice skillfully conveys the conceptual weight of the titles she’s selected through altered and handmade artists’ books. For Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, she created a rabbit hole by cutting openings in the shape of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds for visitors to peer into, to visit the “wonderland.” At the very bottom is a red chess piece, representing the Queen of Hearts.

Van Nice's work is represented in the collections of NMWA, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. She lives and works in Somerville, Massachusetts.