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Theme: Books

2008.03.05

Or in this case, books as art, with apologies to Artbug for taking a liberal interpretation of her theme.

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like, a naked woman sculpted from a hanging string of books (my apologies if this offends anyone). This sculpture hangs in the conference center hallway at the company I work for, and I walk under it every day to get to the cafeteria. The company's founder and CEO has a large modern art collection, and much of it is on display throughout the corporate campus (www.westcollection.org).

The artist who did this piece is Long-Bin Chen, a Chinese artist who studied in New York City and now lives in Taiwan. He uses discarded books, magazines, even telephone directories for his sculptures. The West Collection has several of his pieces, this one and phone books sculpted into a sort of Buddha head are my favorites. I don't know where the Buddha head is at the moment or I'd have photographed it, too, but it's beautiful and you literally have to be right in front of the thing to realize it isn't marble.

Anyway, I thought this might be more interesting than my shelves and shelves of books on coral reefs and fish. What do you think?

geat shots

PEXRI · 2008-03-04: 23:24

No apologies at all ..I actually encourage people to think out of the box about themes and I love this ...although I find it very interesting to peek at people's bookshelves :) This art is awesome and cool ..

????? · 2008-03-04: 23:25

I never saw books shaped like this! How do you saw a book? Very creative!

JanetLippincott · 2008-03-04: 23:28

Fantastic set- I had never thought of old books as sculpture- a subject I am very interested in and try to show on my blog whenever I spot something interesting and am thinking of taking a class.

Lynda · 2008-03-05: 04:28

Very inventive - interesting art and excellent photography, but my books (read or not) are staying on the shelves. Can't bear to part with them even to make art!

basisimages · 2008-03-05: 06:07

Great post - love your interpretation. It must be so nice to work in a place that has such wonderful art pieces on display.

japarker · 2008-03-05: 09:28

Very neat! I've never heard or seen such a thing.

LostAspen · 2008-03-05: 09:40

Well done !

Frenchies · 2008-03-05: 11:46

That's what i call creative! That guy is a genius.

Your photos are sure great too, especially the last one. i love that you took the theme in your own direction.

Madoc · 2008-03-05: 12:37

Very different and interesting.
What a creative artist.

ambersunsets · 2008-03-05: 16:50

I am in love with this sculpture. I've added the third photo to my favorites—composition, colour and , of course, the artistry. How fortunate you are to work in a place that gives space to contemporary art.

photopoet · 2008-03-05: 17:32