[youtube]http://youtu.be/tUR3mEp26eE[/youtube] Welcome to the Book Hive, a large-scale interactive sculpture created by Rusty Squid to celebrate 400 years of public libraries in Bristol, UK. The Hive is a swarm of animated books within hexagonal cells that open and close. The Hive will continue to expand until it contains 400 books, one for each year. The project was funded by Arts Council England, whose regional director Phil Gibby states: We believe that everyone, particularly children and young people, should have the opportunity to experience the richness of the arts, museums and libraries, and by supporting excellent projects like Book Hive, we can bring together the...
Art Not Pulp: The Encyclopedia Britannica Challenge
[caption id="attachment_3129" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Jill Barneby, Vol. 5[/caption] Wondering what to do with that valueless set of Encyclopedias that have been taking up too much space for too long? The Sidney Nolan Trust in the UK was faced with this dilemma. They were given a set of 1950's Encyclopedias Britannica "after all attempts by their original owner to find them a new home failed" and "they were destined to become pulp " [caption id="attachment_3132" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Nigel Kerry, Vol. 22[/caption] Enter the Encyclopaedia Britannica Challenge. A call for book artists and others "to select a volume and transform it into a new...
Illustrating the Natural World
Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1667) Last holiday season the American Museum of Natural History published Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History. A book which allowed readers "a privileged glimpse of seldom-seen, fully illustrated scientific tomes from the American Museum of Natural History's Rare Book Collection." From Marcus Bloch's 12-volume encyclopedia of fishes (1782-1795) Now they are following up the book's success with a year-long exhibition, Natural Histories: 400 Years of Scientific Illustration from the Museum’s Library, focusing on images that were created in pursuit of scientific knowledge and to accompany important scientific works in disciplines ranging from astronomy to zoology....
Book Fair with Grunge and more…
This weekend the annual Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair takes center stage. Nearly 100 booksellers from far and wide converge on the Seattle Center to showcase their stuff. Don't let the name antiquarian fool you - the fair will be packed with all sorts of printed goodies at all sorts of price points. The fair is a must for any book enthusiast so don't let the terminology scare you away. Here's some highlights. Division Leap from Portland is bringing an archive of Seattle fanzines that documents essentially the history of the Seattle punk scene which also includes possibly the very first...
‘Marvels & Monsters’: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics
“Yellow Claw” #1, Atlas Comics, October 1956. (Marjean Magazine Corp.) The Japanese American National Museum, in collaboration with NYU's Asian/Pacific/American Institute and the Fales Library & Special Collections, present “Marvels & Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942-1986.” The exhibit highlights racial and cultural images of Asians that appeared in comic books from WWII through the mid-1980's. The very same images that defined and still fuel America’s perceptions and stereotypes of Asians. Unknown Soldier #221 (November 1978), DC Comics, Inc. [DC].The exhibition is curated by “Asian Pop” columnist Jeff Yang and is culled from the collection of William F. Wu, a noted science fiction...