Every so often, we’re reminded of how obsolete books are as functional reading materials. Time and time again the bound pages of literature are repurposed as sculpting materials. In this particularly large and untitled sculpture by artist Liu Wei, we’re met with a massive stack of paperback books that have been dug into and reshaped as one entity. The result is what appears to be an old and dusty metropolis, as dated and abandoned as the material it is made out of.
The piece is open to interpretation, whether one sees it as a statement about books, technology, or rapid industrial growth. However, the Beijing-based artist’s press release for this piece states: “Liu Wei translates the chaos of his native city, a city that is in a permanent state of development and which keeps reinventing itself to fill the exponential needs of its hyper-productivity.”
