![The Little Prince, Covers Front & Back The Little Prince, Covers Front & Back](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_31_0113_18x241.jpg?quality=85&w=2400)
Kerry Mansfield finds beauty in imperfection. In 2013, the San Francisco-based photographer created a series of images of worn library books entitled Expired, capturing the water damage, tears and hand-written scrawls that make each book unique.
Mansfield was inspired to start her project after spotting an old library checkout card inside a book she found at Goodwill, which made her nostalgic for the experience of libraries before books and card catalogues were digitized. She then spent more than two years collecting at least 160 former library books she found through nonprofits, eBay, libraries, garage sales and even individual submissions. They are all “books that have lived in at least one public library, often many more,” she said. “Once they are too abused or out of date they’re written off as ‘withdrawn’, ‘removed’, ‘expired’, and taken out of circulation…. The unlucky ones get recycled back into pulp.”
Mansfield’s goal was to bring these damaged books back to life through photography, treating each as if it were a relic to be revered. She is not interested in the books that have been carefully preserved, but rather the ones that show their age. “I hunt those down because the truly, amazingly used ones shouldn’t be forgotten,” she said.
More of Kerry Mansfield’s work can be found on her website; the Expired monograph will be published in 2016.
![The Little Prince, Covers Front & Back The Little Prince, Covers Front & Back](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_31_0113_18x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Bonjour Babar, Interior Back Spread Bonjour Babar, Interior Back Spread](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_20_0020_18x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Charlotte's Web, Interior Back Spread](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_05_0047_24x201.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Interior Back Spread](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_03_0632_18x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![All About Dinosaurs, Interior Right Page](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_15_0032_24x201.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![All About Dinosaurs, Puncture Stamp](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_27_0024_20x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Time for Fairy Tales Old & New, Interior Graffiti](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_39_0007_18x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Yellow Sled, Interior Right Page Snipp, Snapp, Snurr and the Yellow Sled, Interior Right Page](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_26_0021_24x201.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Multiple Spines, Hardy Boys Set](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_multi_spine_hardy_12x242.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Hardy Boys Set, Back Covers](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_multi_covers_hardy_18x241.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![The First Book of Animal Signs, Interior Left Page](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_35_0039_24x201.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Lasso Your Heart, Interior Right Page Lasso Your Heart, Interior Right Page](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_16_0043_24x181.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Interior Back Spread](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_02_0303_24x181.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![Multiple Spines, Classics, Treasure Island, Cannery Row, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_25_0072_24x181.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
![House on a Cliff, Interior Illustration](https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/lcbp_19_0050_20x24_v2_flat81.jpg?quality=75&w=2400)
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Melinda French Gates Is Going It Alone
- What to Do if You Can’t Afford Your Medications
- How to Buy Groceries Without Breaking the Bank
- Sienna Miller Is the Reason to Watch Horizon
- Why So Many Bitcoin Mining Companies Are Pivoting to AI
- The 15 Best Movies to Watch on a Plane
- Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time
Contact us at [email protected]