The Glass Archive began with a simple rule: to collect any novel that contains the word 'glass' in its title. The result of this proposition is a growing collection of currently 80 novels. The Glass Archive aims to demonstrate the complex and numerous ways in which glass is thought of and understood, and the extent to which this material, its properties and the assumptions made of it are embedded in the psyche and within culture.

The Glass Archive was first shown as part of a multidisciplinary arts project with Kindle Theatre, a Birmingham based theatre group, for a series of performances called the Glass House based in the now derelict Chances Glass factory, Smethwick, Birmingham.