Urban Art Association

Books sculpture street art, by Feral Things on Jul 15, 2016 18:12:25 GMT 1, Nice!  Here's a few other book sculptures that I've been really impressed with over the years (none of these are my photos I'm afraid).

Jorge Mendez's 'Chapter VI - The Castle' is about the impact of a book but also, more specifically, about the impossibility of reaching our goals (the book under the wall is Kafka's 'The Castle' which is about the main character's inability to reach the castle in the book)


Anselm Kiefer's lead books act as a repository for history and learning.  These are themes that are central to his work which often focuses on his native Germany coming to terms with the last 100 years of its history.  The books are made of lead because, in Kiefer's own words, it's 'the only material heavy enough to carry the weight of human history'.  The works at the RA last year and the White Cube a few years before that were just incredible to experience in person.


Tauba Auerbach's 'RGB Colorspace Atlas' is a massive book of prints showing every variation of RGB colour possible.  Kind of like a 3D colour palette and quite a beautiful thing. 


Technically, this isn't a sculpture and it doesn't contain any books but instead it's a memorial to mark the site where the Nazi book burnings took place in May 1933.  The subterranean memorial is by Micha Ullman and can be viewed through a glass place in what is now Bebelplatzthe in Berlin; it consists of enough empty bookcases to hold all 20,000 books that were burnt that night.  Simple, but very effective.

Nice!  Here's a few other book sculptures that I've been really impressed with over the years (none of these are my photos I'm afraid).

Jorge Mendez's 'Chapter VI - The Castle' is about the impact of a book but also, more specifically, about the impossibility of reaching our goals (the book under the wall is Kafka's 'The Castle' which is about the main character's inability to reach the castle in the book)


Anselm Kiefer's lead books act as a repository for history and learning.  These are themes that are central to his work which often focuses on his native Germany coming to terms with the last 100 years of its history.  The books are made of lead because, in Kiefer's own words, it's 'the only material heavy enough to carry the weight of human history'.  The works at the RA last year and the White Cube a few years before that were just incredible to experience in person.


Tauba Auerbach's 'RGB Colorspace Atlas' is a massive book of prints showing every variation of RGB colour possible.  Kind of like a 3D colour palette and quite a beautiful thing. 


Technically, this isn't a sculpture and it doesn't contain any books but instead it's a memorial to mark the site where the Nazi book burnings took place in May 1933.  The subterranean memorial is by Micha Ullman and can be viewed through a glass place in what is now Bebelplatzthe in Berlin; it consists of enough empty bookcases to hold all 20,000 books that were burnt that night.  Simple, but very effective.