Gemma Janes founded literary project, Sendb00ks in 2018, a non-profit publishing house that commissions contemporary artists to design detachable sleeves for books that inspire them. Previous collaborations have included Marie Hazard, Tali Lennox and Estelle Hoy. Distributed worldwide to a network of subscribers, the project bridges art and literature, fostering connections through physical distribution and the sharing of stories. Based in London, Janes began her career as a model before her path evolved to incorporate writing and photography. Her work has been published in apartamento, The Sunday Times and British Vogue. In 2024, Janes collaborated with Dr. Anitra Lourie to host the Sendb00ks school on a donation basis, both online and in person. She has also curated libraries and hosted events at Yvon Lambert, Left Bank Books and Galerie Saint Anne, among others.

A curation of books by Gemma Janes will be on display at the Le Monde Béryl pop up space in Paris, 24bis Rue Saint Roch, 75001, from 24.9.25-4.11.25.

1. How would you explain your rituals, process and practice? 

I live by rituals. They are the structure I come back to as I like to travel and to move depending on the rhythm of the day. So it is important for me to write when I first wake up and before I go to sleep, it keeps wake time in check. And I do that by hand.

To set myself up to work I like to light a candle. I love that you can always find a candle wherever you go in the world. When I spent time in Guatemala this was a breakfast tradition that I really appreciated, there is something sacred and soft about being close to fire in the morning. I am the most alert first thing, I love to catch sunrise. 9am–11am is my golden hour and I try to tackle the most important things in these hours. Coffee too, lots of black coffee.

Later in the day I lose focus, but I have to read a lot for my work, so to avoid distraction I like to leave my phone and head to a public library and commit to reading books in one go. This is such a special experience that I would recommend — you can become completely enveloped in another world, another way of seeing and thinking.

For things that demand focus I always go to a public library. I am too distracted anywhere else, and in a library if I get distracted it always kind of leads me back to the work in some way or another.

I also need to do at least one hour of serious exercise each day. If not, I lose my mind, knots form. Running and swimming really help me to think because my body is distracted.

2. Is there a quote or particular philosophy you live by?

I read the ‘Tao Te Ching’ when I was a young teenager. I think it had an overwhelming influence on me and my life and the philosophy I live by. Mainly, not to force anything. It is important to embrace difficulties, but to let them go as well, and seek balance. I came across a recent translation by Ursula K. Le Guin. She grew up watching her father reading the Tao, curious as to what he was seeking. But it is not really seeking anything to read it again, it kind of just sets you back on the path.

I also love love love these rules for work by Sister Corita Kent — they called her the ‘Pop Art Nun.’ She was a nun and educator, and an inspiration to John Cage and Andy Warhol. One of them is “Enjoy yourself, it’s lighter than you think.”

I am working on a manifesto of sorts for Sendb00ks at the moment, so I am reading lots of truisms by Jenny Holzer as well.

3. What are your favourite books that you repeatedly return to? And why?

Beautiful question. And I suppose it’s the question we ask everybody who collaborates with Sendb00ks. Different books give me different rhythms, so it is kind of like returning to an album, returning to a book. Or calling an old friend!

I love to keep ‘Midwinter Day’ by Bernadette Mayer close. Leonora Carrington, when things feel a bit heavy — she lifts me up into the surreal. ‘Art Monsters’ by Lauren Elkin is a bible about different women artists and their practices, and I really love that as it’s deeply motivating! Essays by Audre Lorde, of course — they shift every year for me in meaning and each time give me something new. Ursula K. Le Guin.

There are so many. I am twisting my back to look at the books behind me now and it gives me so much comfort to see these names I love so deeply. ‘True Stories’ by Margaret Atwood! I just bought three new copies because I’m always lending mine out.

I think the biggest gift in my life has been that I get to discover other people’s favourite books. Just when you think you’ve read it all you discover a new book that you can’t believe you lived 30 years on earth without. That’s such a thing to look forward to in life.

4. Whose work has been the biggest influence on you to date?

I don’t know if it has ever been one particular influence. I feel like it’s more of a web.

Actually! I had the chance to interview Elena Palumbo Mosca for apartamento magazine in 2023. It was my first serious interview and I wasn’t very prepared, and Elena was the most engaged 93-year-old. She completely floored me with her intellect, studies and skill, and I just went home kind of devastated with this missed opportunity.

So I did my research, and then I asked if I could come back. She quite begrudgingly invited me instead to visit her at her home in the Italian mountains and she taught me a lot, more than any person has ever taught me, and we became friends I think. She was the collaborator of Yves Klein — she is the naked blue body you can see in the ‘Anthropometries.’

I thought we’d have au pair work, travelling and modelling in common but no — she was an extremely skilled diver, a political interpreter, and very experienced in Zen Buddhism. She was performing naked when it was very forbidden. She was very dismissive of people labelling her as a human paintbrush. She told me when I asked about the reception of her performance with Yves, “It’s far more emotional for me to read a poem in public than to take my clothes off.”

So it was her work, her way of being in the world. She had a lot of issues with my posture, she would make me sit tall, telling me that my sex must always be on the chair, that I was like a flower pot, and it must not tilt or the plant cannot grow in my spine and I wouldn’t be able to think clearly.

5. How would you define beauty?

Having worked in the beauty and fashion industry since I was quite young I have always had a tumultuous relationship with concepts of physical beauty. But I feel more safe with it now, I really like getting older, I feel like I am growing into my body and face.

I enjoy Elaine Scarry’s writings on beauty, also Simone Weil. That beauty raises you up, it makes you want to be better. You could be having a bad day but then you see a little baby bird and you’re not really interested in yourself anymore — you’re in the world.