Library of Dust is photographer David Maisel's exploration of loss and remembrance through his unsettling images of copper canisters, each containing the cremated remains of patients from an Oregon State psychiatric hospital (interestingly, the same hospital used in the filming of the movie One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest) which were never claimed by next-of-kin. The canisters, dating from as far back as the nineteenth century, were discovered in a vault on the hospital grounds that had flooded repeatedly over the years. This exposure to moisture created chemical reactions between the copper and the remains inside, which formed a secondary bloom. Brilliant white, green and blue corrosion contrast against the still bright copper of the canisters, revealing tragic and unexpected beauty in this, the most unlikely of places. Library of Dust is both a quietly astonishing body of fine art and a monument to the lost memory of the unknown deceased.

Photographer David Maisel's work is held in the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others.