AN ARTFUL DISPLAY OF BOOKS

Books Recycled Into Decorative Tower in Washington Museum

                                          

The Centre for Education and Leadership recently opened across the street from Ford's Theatre, where Abraham Lincoln was shot, in Washington. It explores " the lasting effect Abraham Lincoln’s presidency—and its untimely end—have had on our country." In the middle is a winding staircase and a 34 foot high " tower of books about Lincoln, symbolizing that the last word about this great man will never be written.


It is a bit of a throwback to an age when people bought books by the yard and installed them as decoration, or hired someone to curate a library to make the owner look sophisticated. Here they are gluing together a tower of books, about one person, that apparently nobody wants to read anymore. So they get glued into an architectural decorative feature.

I am not convinced that it sends a message that "the last word about this great man will never be written." I think it says the opposite, that there are so many books about this great man that nobody wants to read them anymore. That this is all they are good for. It also is a great advertisement for the e-book, which can be easily and quickly distributed to anyone in America who wants to learn about Lincoln, instead of piling up waiting to be either pulped or turned into an architectural decoration.
But at least it is creative recycling.

Excerpt taken from treehugger: http://www.treehugger.com/interior-design/books-recycled-decorative-tower-washington-museum.html?SMC-PTWT2012