On the Dignity of Implausible Things

The Museum of Almost-Inventions was founded in the spring of MMXXIV, beneath an unassuming stretch of arcade in the Old Quarter, with a single donated artefact (a doorbell which had asked, repeatedly, to be forgiven). What began as a private cabinet of curiosities of misjudgment has since grown into the only permanent institution in the world devoted exclusively to inventions which were almost — but not quite — brought into being.

Our holdings are unified not by medium nor by maker, but by a single curatorial principle: every object in the collection represents an idea which, upon meeting reality, found reality wanting. Some artefacts were abandoned by their inventors; others abandoned their inventors first. A small number have, by recent accounts, begun quietly abandoning the museum.

We extend our gratitude to the Bureau of Reluctant Implements, the Royal Society for the Olfactory Comfort of the Departed, and the many anonymous benefactors whose patience and skepticism have made this institution possible.