Wow. Even in my relatively prosperous community, I hear all the time about book drives for needy people. I just cannot imagine that these books couldn't have been put to better use as...READING MATERIAL.

"This amazing display gives us some new ideas on how to arrange reading materials in our own homes. Or at least on how to have fun trying."

I think not. Stacking books and calling it art is no different then stacking books and not calling it art. My books are for reading, not stacking.

it's quite amazing how they were able to use the books as an architectural element.

http://chichunters.blogspot.com/

Reminds me of a children's book..."Aunt Chip and the Triple Creek Dam Affair."

i too am a practical person but the detractors of this project need to lighten up...it's about the thinking out of the box creative process. i'm sure these books were or will be read but have just been repurposed for this installation.

or maybe they were just really bad books and are better off as building material than reading material.

What happens if you want to read a load-bearing book in an upper corner? Is it like Jenga? :)

I actually think this is kinda cool. I imagine making a little reading corner for my daughter walled off with old books (somehow fastened together obviously...). I understand wanting to use these as reading material, but I'm just thinking of the stacks and stacks of those reader's digest 4-in-1 novels at the thrift store. They all have such bright colors on the binding and the page edges, I think it would be really happy looking.

Or maybe with old magazines? Reusing is better than recycling...

@peahen, me too. It was a while ago now, so I can't remember the artist, but it was quite amazing in person.

How many stories high is it?

agreed, sally305. then again, if all those books are copies of "going rogue", then i guess it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't get read.

@sally305. You're right art is a waste of materials; there should be no art. Books are a waste of resources too; people should not read. Reading blogs is a waste of energy, so why don't you stop reading this one?

http://www.matejkren.cz/en/book-cell/
"...when all of the books can return to their function of being read..."

So, yes, eventually the books will be returned to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, "a charitable foundation established in Portugal in 1956 with cultural, educational, social and scientific interests."

mklawrie: point taken. There are plenty of bad books in the world (to kpaige's point) that are probably not worth the paper they're printed on. I am glad to see these books can be repurposed back into reading material after this installation comes down.

I have absolutely no problem with artists using books as a material like this at all and yet, whenever I see images of people's book collections piled sloppily on the floor or wedged and crammed into nooks and crannies without any regard for their condition (THAT fireplace image featured on AT, in particular!) it really annoys me!

i <3 mklawrie

"i"?

Also reminds me of the artist-commissioned tower of books Jamie Drake used in his Showtime showroom house for Californication.

Huh. My original comment was "i heart mklawrie".