David Dixon, assisted by Oxford Brookes art student Emily Stanworth, has used more than 3,000 books and a substantial number of book boxes to create an installation that is site specific to the Art Jericho gallery. The books and the boxes were donated by OUP and Oxfam. Dixon has worked with books for the last five years and has wanted for sometime to create a book-based installation, in Oxford. He describes this exhibition as a poetic homecoming, nestling as it does so close to the OUP’s Jericho home.

Entangled Practice takes one on a journey through the gallery space. A journey that owes its origins to the Pillars of Hercules and the inscription round their base: Many will pass through and knowledge will be the greater. And the warning also on the Pillars of Hercules, Non Plus Ultra (There is no more) to which Dixon has added the motto Plus Ultra (that there is more), a quotation attributed to Charles V on sending his navy, beyond the Pillars to discover and conquer his South American empire.

The gallery is divided into three sections by floor-to-ceiling high dividers made of OUP book boxes.

The first section is composed of a mosaic of books on the floor, each of which has been given a white-out using a dense layer of ground quartz. Adjacent is a tower of books rhythmically climbing from floor to ceiling, whose mechanics are assured by careful mathematical calculations. Next is a second, smaller chamber inhabited by a shorter tower. The final area is home to another floor mosaic, consisting of books arranged by colour: red, orange, blue and green.

The overall experience is intense, owing to the sheer volume of the books and the way they have made the gallery space their own. However, as if in counter-balance, the books do shift and move as the pieces settle down, a subtle reference to the transient nature of the exhibition, and indeed book-based knowledge.

The exhibition runs until September 5 and is open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am-5pm.