Words have to wait for the trees in a Norwegian wood to turn into pages

Some will never know if their books were appreciated by readers, many of whom aren’t born yet. Every year for 100 years, a different author will contribute to the “Future Library”, a collection of works to be published only in the next century.

So far, 1,000 Norwegian spruces planted three years ago are the only visible sign of this internationally and stylistically diverse project, each little shrub decorated with a red ribbon in a modest clearing in a forest on the outskirts of Oslo.

Once they reach 100 years old, in 2114, the trees will be chopped down and used to make paper for anthologies compiling the works of the invited writers.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood was the first one asked to join the initiative in 2015, followed by English novelist David Mitchell in 2016. This year Icelandic poet Sjon submitted his manuscript — one, his contemporaries will, in all likelihood, never read.

Unknown audience

“One of the things an author will always deal with is the fact that there will be readers the author never knows. They might be on another continent and they might be far away in time. But it’s very rare to know that no one will read the text while you are alive,” says Mr. Sjon, who also writes lyrics for Icelandic singer Bjork.

Knowing that he would never see any reactions to his piece “made my relationship with the text very deep”, he explained.

“Writing in my language, which is the Icelandic language, was also one of the questions I was faced with because I don’t know where my language will be in 100 years.” While normally it is the blank page that awaits the author’s divine inspiration, this time it is the authors’ words that have to wait for the tree to turn into the pages of a book.

The idea for the library took root in the imagination of Scottish artist Katie Paterson and was able to grow following a meeting with Norwegian real estate developers hunting for cultural projects.

“I think that will be very interesting for those who get to read the manuscripts in 100 years. Because they can reflect all the way back in time because, 100 years later, who knows what that civilisation is going to be?” Ms. Paterson says.

But, will we still be reading books in 2114? Will there still be machines to print books?

“I think it was Umberto Eco, who said the form of the book can never be improved upon. It’s like the wheel, there’s no improvement,” says Ms. Paterson.