TOOLSHED #3 - After Library

The After Library (2025–), a tiny, experimental library of clothes and books, blends collective reading with speculative design and the wear of clothing. The Library's garments are designed and produced in response to texts chosen by friends, and then the garment-book combos are loaned out for short periods to a small but growing network of friends and collaborators (and their friends and collaborators, etc). The After Library’s purpose is for its materials to be worn and read, and to document these loaning processes as social histories of wear, embodied and dialogic reading experiences — and stylish moments.

For their After Library collaboration at Kunstinstituut Melly, Thulile Gamedze and Tlotliso Skefu plan to continue existing After Library processes within the Rotterdam context, to conduct experimental audiobook work, and to produce a new mini collection together, responding to site-specific history readings and engagements in the city. The After Library will also go live for the first time in wearing-and-reading sessions, accompanied by sonic interpretations of its materials.