Anneberth L. has lived in London for a little over twenty years now. Come September, she plans to move to Hastings on the East Sussex coast. As a child, Anneberth heard many stories about Britain from her father who had been a POW in the UK during the Second World War. When she first visited London in 1973, she instinctively felt as though she already knew the city: ‘It was like coming home’.

In 1978, she was offered a temporary job at Foyles bookshop and moved to London. She was nineteen years old and after only six months of what she describes as ‘horrendous’ working and living conditions, Anneberth returned to Germany. In 1993, after having worked for the British publisher Penguin in Frankfurt for several years, she accepted a job at a publishing house in London and decided to give the city of her dreams another chance. On the 27^th of December, Anneberth arrived with a moving van and this time she would stay for good.

Last year she started working as a freelance consultant in the British publishing sector and is now planning her move to the countryside. Anneberth’s new house will include a ‘library’, which will replace the white bookshelf in Chiswick that holds her most precious possession – an ever-growing collection of books. ‘Most of the books on the shelves accompanied me through my youth into adulthood…and all of what is on display has a story attached or reminds me of a specific place or period of my life’, Anneberth explains passionately. They are an important part of who she is. She continues: ‘That wall contains all of my selves, the ideas that formed mine. They explain who I am and who I aspire to be’.

Object Information

• Year of Production:  mid 1980s
• Place of Production: Chiswick, London
• Material: Wood
• Size: 2.5 m x 4 m
• Colour: White
• The bookshelf contains a collection of books, which Anneberth has acquired since she was a young girl in the 1970s.