Some of you might think that Wikipedia has killed the encyclopaedia created by the Lumières, this huge book that now never gets out of an old library’s shelve - but what if it Wiki would be printed?

American artist Michael Mandiberg has decided to print – a part – of Wikipedia for an installation called “From Aaaaa! to ZZZap!” held at the Denny Gallery (NYC), to get a physical idea of how big it is. The goal was to transform the English-language Wikipedia into an old-fashioned print reference set running up to 7,600 volumes.

The artist, who also works as a teacher, a software programmer and a seasoned Wikipedia contributor with nearly 2,000 edits to his name, first started batting around the idea for the project in 2009.

Mandiberg has started - on the 18th of June - to upload 11 gigabytes of very compressed data from a Mac Mini to the print-on-demand website Lulu.com. The upload is projected onto one wall of the gallery and for the printing, the gallery’s other walls have lined with wallpaper showing the backs of the first 1,980 volumes in the set, supplemented by 106 actual physical volumes, each of which runs to 700 pages. He will not, however, be printing all 7,600 volumes.

As each volume finishes uploading, the title is posted online. There will be a party when the entire upload is done, which Mandiberg estimated will take 11 to 14 days.

All this will be celebrated with toasts and a projection of the confirmation page, complete with a “Buy It Now” button offering the whole set for $500,000.

“The order is so big it breaks the shopping cart (…) But symbolically, I wanted to able to say ‘Buy It Now.’ ”

The exhibition is running now until the 11th of July.

261 Broome Street | New York, NY 10002