Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

Melbourne-based artist Daryl Fitzgerald occupies a unique career crossroads of “bibliophile” and “bricklayer”. While his subjects may be heavy in content, Fitzgerald’s objects are heavy in form. What I’m trying to say is: Light Reading turns bricks into books. For instance, here’s The Hobbit in its birth place. It’s a nook, alright, but it’s not a Nook! This is some fine book art, and no real books were harmed in the making of it!

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

As someone who still (quite happily) buys books, I can’t help loving what a wee bit of an F.U. this is to e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook. It’s also a cool visual metaphor for this.

Light Reading gains inspiration from our collective perception of heavy literature. Each brick is a secondhand paver – the texture, cracks and chips are all a result of time and wear. The brick is stenciled on each side, with titles and pages giving the appearance of an antique leather-bound book. It whimsically invokes nostalgia for a time when libraries were cavernous worlds full of yellowing paper, silence and time. A book’s weight and size often had a direct relationship with its gravitas – and those we cherished are eternally embedded in our memory.

What a wonderful reversal. Books have become a modern artistic medium for creating sculptures. [See recent: “Human Skull Carved Out of Old Software Manuals“.] So why not use a traditional artistic medium for making book art? Need books be functional? Hopefully, you haven’t already forgotten these notebooks made of sheetrock!

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

I spy A Clockwork Orange, On the Road and American Psycho… Click through for more of Light Reading’s book art, and visit their Facebook page to request one made to order.

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

Book Art: Bricks Painted to Look Like Books

Light Reading of Melbourne

Light Reading of Melbourne