Michael Lieberman

Evolution of a Painted Librarian: Peter Sis channels Giuseppe Arcimboldo

 The Librarian (Wolfgang Lazius), ca. 1562. Oil on canvas. 97 x 71 cm (38 3/16 x 28 in.)In the mid-16th century the Italian painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo gave us The Librarian, a portrait  composed almost entirely of books. One of the most original painters of the Renaissance it is not hard to see how his work would influence the Surrealists and Cubists some 400 years later.In his 1994 book The Three Golden Keys illustrator Peter Sís "recaptures the wonder of his own lost childhood in Prague and celebrates the city's cultural heritage, reborn after forty-five years of Communist rule." One of...

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Banksy of the Book Art World

Book art piece found at the National Library of Scotland   Is there a Banksy-style book artist roaming the streets of Scotland?   Last month, the book art piece above was found at the National Library of Scotland. It was the fourth piece found since March in a book-friendly location in Scotland. All references are devised from the work of Scottish mystery writer Ian Rankin and include a note professing  some book love. First it was the Scottish Poetry Library where  a 'poetree' was discovered on a bookshelf. The 'poetree,' comprised of intricately cut pages, had a note attached referencing...

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A Graveyard for the Unfinished Novel

It is safe to say that there are innumerable more unfinished novels out there then there are published ones. Now, thanks to Steve Wilson, a six-time failed novelist himself, the unfinished novel now has a final online resting place. My Unfinished Novels is place where your creative failures are welcome with open arms and a sprinkling of dignity.Each unfinished novel submitted gets its own post which includes a summary of the work, an excerpt from the book's beginning and the reason why the project was abandoned.  Thanks to Booked: Reading Unbound for the lead

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Book App Review: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

 "Morris Lessmore loved words. He loved stories. He loved books. His life was a book of his own writing, one orderly page after another..."So begins The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce, an interactive digital narrative based on the award-winning animated short film of the same name. Created by Moonbot Studios the app "blurs the line between picture books and animated film" and adds further fuel to the ongoing debate of what constitutes a book, for the app is not based on a book and has yet to be "in print" (a picture book version is...

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In the Stacks: Charles Darwin’s Library

Charles Darwin had close to 1500 books in his library. Now, thanks to the Biodiversity Heritage Library, one can digitally peruse over 400 of the books contained therein, including over 300 of the most heavily annotated. The library of Charles Darwin. Courtesy of Cambridge University LibraryThe Charles Darwin’s Library project is "a digital edition and virtual reconstruction of the surviving books owned by Charles Darwin." "a miserable book - all words, words, words." Annotation in Volume 1 of  Histoire naturelle générale des règnes organiques by Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, Isidore, 1854."The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a consortium of 12 natural history and...

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