Mysterious book sculptures in Edinburgh set to tour Scots libraries

The ten intricate creations were left around the city by an anonymous artist.

31 July 2012 11:21

A series of intricate sculptures made from books and mysteriously left around Edinburgh are going on display.

Ten artworks were gifted to a number of places around the capital with notes attached from the artist.

The mystery started in March last year when the first of the paper sculptures were found at the Poetry Library. It was a tree made from paper and mounted on top of a book.

In June, two more appeared. The first was left at the National Library of Scotland, a gramophone and coffin made from a copy of Ian Rankin’s Exit Music. The second was characters bursting out of a cinema screen, left at the Filmhouse.

In July, the Scottish Storytelling Centre received one. This time, a dragon sitting inside a cracked egg was left in a window.

Two were left at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August, the first for the organisers was a cup of tea and a cupcake. The second, addressed to the City of Literature, was a person sat underneath a tree bursting out of the book.

In the same month, a magnifying glass on top of a book was left at the Central Lending Library.

In November, staff at the Poetry Library found what claimed to be the last of ten sculptures. Two separate pieces showed a hat and gloves made of feathers.

An accompanying note read: "'You need to know when to end a story,' she thought. Often a good story ends where it begins. This would mean a return to the Poetry Library. The very place where she had left the first of the ten.

"So, here, she will end this story, in a special place … A Poetry Library ….. where they are well used to ‘anon.’ Cheers Edinburgh It’s been fun!"

The sculpture said it was the last of ten, but only eight had been found.

In November, both the National Museum of Scotland and the Writer’s Museum announced they had also received sculptures.

A dinosaur bursting out of a copy of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lost World was left at the museum, and a street scene with a full moon above was left at the Writer’s Museum.

Now the sculptures are going on tour, visiting libraries around the country.

They will be at Aberdeen Central Library from August 17 to September 6, Dundee Central Library from September 7 to 25, Wigtown Book Festival from September 27 to October 7.

From October 9 to 27 they will be at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, Dunfermline Carnegie Library from October 30 to November 18 before coming to the Scottish Poetry Library from November 24 to December 8.