The Best American Book of the 20th Century

by Societe Realiste
edited by Niels van Tomme, Freek Lomme, Prem Krishnamurthy

THE BEST AMERICAN BOOK OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Consists of:

the first sentence of the first best-selling book of 1900, as listed*;
the second sentence of the second best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the third sentence of the third best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the fourth sentence of the fourth best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the fifth sentence of the fifth best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the sixth sentence of the sixth best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the seventh sentence of the seventh best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the eight sentence of the eight best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the ninth sentence of the ninth best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the tenth sentence of the tenth best-selling book of 1900, as listed;
the eleventh sentence of the first best-selling book of 1901, as listed;
and so on up to the end of the century, to the thousandth sentence of the tenth best-selling book of 1999.
Each sentence is footnoted with its reference.
Ten sentences form one paragraph, representing one year.
Ten paragraphs form one chapter, representing one decade.
The book represents a century: the American Century.

In constructing “The Best American Book of the 20th Century,” artist cooperative Societe Realiste replaces the proper nouns with pronouns. This slightly enhances the original text and enables a selected overview of the history of Best American Fiction in one condensed, ambitious novel.Design agency Project Projects translated these ambitions in the publication’s graphics, in close collaboration with the editorial team. Curator Niels van Tomme served as scenographic advisor, Onomatopee director Freek Lomme facilitated final editing and production: exhibition space and publisher Onomatopee provides an institutional framework for the presentation and distribution of this project, making “The Best American Book of the 20th Century” its 100th project issue (OMP100).

* The 20th-Century American Bestsellers Database consists of work done by undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Virginia, the University of Illinois, Catholic University, and Brandeis University, from 1998 to the present, using the rankings from Bowker’s Annual/Publisher’s Weekly.

Paperback | 112 pages | Onomatopee | 2015