A story unraveled in Edinburgh last year, a story of mystery, of intrigue and of delight. One by one 10 beautiful paper sculptures, made from old books, were left anonymously in art venues across the city, celebrating Edinburgh's status as a UNESCO City of Literature, the beauty of books and the power of libraries, museums and theatres......a small swipe from the creative world at cutbacks in the public sector, at library closures.....
Many tried to find out who had created the sculptures but the people did not want to know....
Read the whole amazing story here.....Central Station Blog....and see great photos of all 10 of the sculptures.
In 2012, the sculptures are touring libraries and literary events across Scotland and I was lucky enough to see them when the were in the Central Library in Dundee.
Many feature the work of Scottish literary giants such as Arthur Conan Doyle and the poet Edwin Morgan, many were linked to Ian Rankin.
Entitled: Lost (albeit in a good book)
Sculpted from a copy of Ian Rankin's Exit Music
The first sculpture found at Edinburgh's Poetry Museum - the tree.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex bursting forth from the pages of a copy of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" - found in the National Museum of Scotland.
Perhaps this is one of the most touching tags, found on the sculpture left in Edinburgh's Central Library....the one that gives focus to the challenge facing public libraries....the cutbacks in public sector spending that threaten their very existence.......I like the sentiment - libraries are not expensive, they are expansive.
All this has led to me rejoining my local library after an absence of many years and to rediscovering the joy of free books and the opportunity to try out books you wouldn't buy but might enjoy.
Go on , give your local library a chance and give your local library a future!
5 comments:
They are lovely. I quite enjoyed reading about them all, and I do wish I could see them in person, they must be magical.
I love libraries and often goes there, sometimes alone, sometimes with my children, who are learning to love books as much as I do.
gorgeous sculptures and fantastic way to get a (good) message across! I'm an avid library person when I'm in teh US, but over here, we have no public libraries at all :(
Amazing! Thanks for sharing!
I have always loved libraries too and am a big advocate for them. There was much push back when our township wanted to build the new building a few years ago but it has become the center of the community and is always busy with people visiting. I love it. The paper sculptures are truly amazing-- I've never seen any that large! You were so lucky to be able to see them in person!
Thanks for the reminder of this incredible anonymous phenomenon! I'm so glad they are being treasured and shared. I wish our local council would listen to pleas to keep libraries open... eight branch libraries are for the chop in Aberdeen.
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