In Australia they call them bowsers; here we call them gas pumps.No matter what you call them check out this commercial for the Nissan Leaf electric car that aired down under and features the bowser above.And while we are at the gas station let's not forget this life-size gas station made entirely from the covers of books by Dutch conceptual artist Job Koelewijn's in 2007. The name of the piece: Sanctuary.Previously on book patrol:Fill 'er up at Job Koelewijn's 'Sanctuary'Thanks to Bookshelf Porn for the lead on the bowsers
The Encyclopedia Britannica in the Hands of Simryn Gill
A couple of months ago it was announced that after 200+ years the Encyclopedia Britannica would cease publishing a printed edition. The granddaddy of all encyclopedia's had finally succumbed; becoming the latest casualty of the digital revolution.So what to do with all those sets of bound knowledge that are strewn across the planet?How about turning them into a flotilla of paper boats!In her 2008 installation Paper Boats Australian artist Simryn Gill offered up the 1968 edition of the encyclopedia to the public and invited them to turn its pages into origami boats.In a review of an exhibit of Paper Boats...
Edinburgh’s Phantom Book Artist Takes a Detour
“Remember Edinburgh’s Mystery Sculptor? She has sent me 17 small paintings for my birthday, each one from a Rebus title.” - Author and subject of many of the pieces, Ian Rankin on Twitter.It has been almost a year since a slew of Rankin-themed book art pieces began popping up at various literary destinations around Edinburgh. The story received worldwide attention yet the artist continues to remain a mystery.Now this "Banksy of the Book Art World" takes a slight turn. Instead of a book art piece being left around town the artist changes direction and sends Rankin a birthday present of...
A Book Cover for an Eyesore
What else would you cover an electrical transformer that sits in front of the Library Place apartments, and is adjacent to the Everett Public Library, then with a book sculpture?It's called the "Book Stack" and it stands 8-feet-tall and 12-feet-wide. It is composed of fiberglass and comprised of seven books that were "chosen to acknowledge themes for urban renewal" says developer Craig Skotdal. Titles included are: A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, Main Street by Sinclair Lewis, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and Leaves...
Overstock as Art: The Reading Room at the Berkeley Museum of Art
Installation view. Photo: Sibila Savage “Somewhere to begin, with the most available of formats, the book. At times merely polemical or critical, using such availability as comment on itself — an intimate object in public space.” — Simon Cutts, forward to Some Forms of Availability"Museums are asking the same questions bookstores are...I mean, why go to a museum if you can just look at pictures online in high resolution? It's about the experience." says Lawrence Rinder, the director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.So when Ramsay Bell Breslin, an editor at Kelsey Street Press, conveyed her dilemma of having to either...