Freight+Volume is pleased to present "The Last Library IV: Written in Water," an installation by Ward Shelley with Douglas Paulson, as well as 12 paintings by Shelley on view at Art Basel Meridians December 3 - 7, 2025.

The written word is a technology given credit for much of the movement in human history including, importantly, the rise of both democracy and of science.

The technology of the written word was probably the keystone in our attempts to build a just and fair society and has been an essential component of democracy in the modern era, establishing shared understandings and the firm ground on which to build durable institutions. Terms such as evidence, authority, and the rule of law are meaningless without the written word. Documents of written words are what give our society commonly held beliefs, aspirations, and expected outcomes. Written words establish facts.

Poised on the threshold of the Post Truth Era, The Last Library IV is a shambles of sequestered documents: banned books, stolen documents, state secret plans, Project 2025, the 1619 Project, WikiLeaks, books that were never written, books that were never read. It represents a confusion of points of view on the fate and veracity of the written word. It’s a holding pen, a detention center for the written word as it awaits deportation, as it is hustled off the stage of history.

Here, instruments of propaganda managing public consent and advertising are given equal footing with the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Human Rights. What is our world, what does it mean, and who says?

Shelley creates an elaborate fiction of fake books and documents stored in a disorganized office archive. There are precarious stacks, crowded shelves and secret rooms stashed within illusions of scale and perspective. Intended to be an immersive experience, the provocations, references, and quips are found in every direction. Everything is handmade and mise-en-scene. Embedded and in the “back room” will be a collection of Shelley’s informational diagrams.