Earlier this year, staff at the Scottish Poetry Library came across something odd on one of their tables: a tree, carved from book and paper, and with a short, anonymous note addressed to the Library’s twitter handle @byleaveswelive:
It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree … We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books … a book is so much more than pages full of words … This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas … a gesture (poetic maybe?)
Since that time, more ‘book sculptures’ have turned up in the same way at the National Library of Scotland, the Filmhouse, the Scottish Storytelling Centre, the Central Lending Library, as well as two more during the recent Edinburgh International Book Festival. Here’s the sculpture of a dragon hatching from an egg that was left at the Scottish Storytelling Centre:
For @scotstorycenter – A gift in support of libraries, books, works, ideas….. Once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story…..
Given the messages, it’s possible these sculptures are a reaction against the controversial closure of libraries across the United Kingdom. Or perhaps they’re just wonderful gifts, just as books and libraries are to us all.
To read the whole story, and check out photos of all the sculptures so far, click through to this post.
