Last year I threw a (very well-attended, it has to be said) imaginary party round at my metaphysical pad where we discussed books that didn't exist outside other works of fiction.

Now, as is often the case with fictional things, these imaginary books have leaked into the real world, courtesy of the "illustration collective" INK.

Using the Invisible Library blog as their jumping off point, INK – Chloe Regan, Rachel Gannon and Fumie Kamijo, based at the Royal College of Art in London – have actually created volumes based on 40 of the imaginary books listed on the site.

Described as "part aesthetic adventure and part metafictional exercise", the INK initiative, in conjunction with the literary foundation Real Fits, is being hosted for the next month at the capital's Tenderpixel Gallery.

But what does it all mean? Have they really plucked 40 books from the fictional minds of the made-up writers invented by real-life novelists? Will there really be versions of The King in Yellow or the Necronomicon or any of the multitude of fictional fictions within Borges? Well, sort of.

According to INK: "Working with some of Real Fits' bestselling writers and novelists, as well as high-profile cultural and musical figures, the opening or closing pages of these 40 empty books with illustrated covers, will be penned in advance of the exhibition."

And the experiment doesn't end there. Visitors to the gallery are invited to "sign out" the partially-written books and add their own chapters and ruminations to them. INK again: "Thus by the close of the exhibition, the once blank pages of each book will be enlivened with imaginative poly-vocal stories."

It's an interesting concept and adds an interactive element to reading that is perhaps inevitable in these Web 2.0 days. But how will readers of the original books react? Should books that have been created in the imaginations of writers, seen only in snatches or not at all within larger nests of fiction, ever make it to the real world?

Part of me thinks this is genius, part of me likens it to what happens if you see someone dressed as Spider-Man or Superman at a fancy dress party. The costume has all the bits in the right places, but it never looks as though the person wearing it has just stepped out of a comic book. Sometimes, the harsh glare of reality does not put the tenebrous creations of writers in the best possible light.