Anonymously donated book sculpture

Category

Library Item

Item no

29646

Title

The seventh anonymously donated paper book sculpture found on a bookshelf in Edinburgh Central Lending Library

Description

This picture shows a sculpture of a large magnifying glass sat upon a stand, which is held over a book. The book has a small circular hole with the lines "When I go in I want it bright, I want to catch whatever there is in full sight." from Edwin Morgan's 'Seven Decades' poem. These same lines are also found, enlarged slightly to suggest the magnifying effect, upon the circle of the magnifying glass. There is an accompanying card which reads: "To @Edinburgh_cc - a gift. This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas & Libraries are expensive". The letter e of expensive is crossed out in this case and a letter a is appended above it to form the word expansive.

Artist / maker

MacLean, Kevin

Date

2012

Type

Digital image

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

This sculpture was the final one of several sculptures found in August 2011. This sculpture was found at Central Library, on the 24th August on a bookshelf towards the rear of Central Lending library.
This sculpture was made from an unknown book plus additional pages, string, PVA glue and took lines from Edwin Morgan's poem 'Seven Decades'.
The meaning of the card in this instance seems to reflect the artist's knowledge of libraries being expensive to keep up and to reflect the public sector financial cuts in effect at the time whilst acknowledging that libraries expand us, our minds and lives

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Related subjects

Furnishings > Ornamentation > Sculptures

Places > Scotland > Edinburgh

Sport and leisure > Culture > Libraries

Sport and leisure > Culture > Museums

Sport and leisure > Culture > Public art

Toys > Indoor games > Magnifying Glass

Option	Price
Digital FileElectronic file 72 dpi JPEG	£6.10(inc. VAT 20%)
Digital FileElectronic File 300 dpi TIFF	£31.00(inc. VAT 20%)
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