Projected Books and the Prehistory of Screen Reading

Abstract

This presentation recovers the history of "projected books," an adaptive technology developed shortly after the Second World War for the use of disabled veterans and civilians who found it difficult to read in the conventional way. The device consisted of a vertical projector displaying microfilmed images of books on the ceiling for the entertainment and edification of patients confined to hospital beds. The forgotten history of projected books illustrates how the concept of "the book" evolved throughout the twentieth century to encompass a range of forms, formats, and functions designed for readers with very different capabilities. Drawing on archival research among the holdings of Projected Books Inc. along with the testimonies of disabled readers, this presentation will explore how the initiative adapted print for screen display decades before the rise of digital media and anticipated the book’s potential as a source of screen-based entertainment.

Bio

Matthew Rubery is Professor of Modern Literature at Queen Mary University of London. His books include Reader’s Block: A History of Neurodivergent Reading (2022), The Untold Story of the Talking Book (2016), and Further Reading (2020), a collection of essays for the series Oxford Twenty-First Century Approaches to Literature. His most recent book is Undercover: Victorian Investigative Journalism in Fact and Fiction (2025).