#GLTU6 – Edinburgh Book Sculptures: review

After a break over the summer, #GLTU returned with a very successful first outing for 2012/13 on Friday, 12th October.

When she heard that the famous Edinburgh Book Sculptures were on tour and visiting the Mitchell Library, Gillian (@gillianhanlon) was quick to suggest a visit, and we were lucky enough to persuade Abby Cunnane of the Scottish Poetry Library (@byleaveswelive) and Peggy Hughes from the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust (@EdinCityofLit) to come along and give us added insight into the sculptures and how they were found. The evening was well attended:19 for the visit at the Mitchell, of whom 14 moved on to the nearby Koh-I-Noor for a curry afterwards. I took a few pictures, but they turned out a bit rubbish I’m afraid. These two were acceptable, the first showing Abby describing one of the sculptures and the other taken at the restaurant. The food had just been served so we were concentrating – we didn’t look as serious as that all night!

Other people took better photographs, the most prolific being Richard (@Ricaird) who tweeted a full set, one of each sculpture, so I decided the best way to enhance this review was shamelessly to plunder other people’s material and create a Storify which also includes links to background information about the sculptures in case you want to know more. I thought they were wonderful, and loved the mysteries surrounding them. Who created them? I believe they are genuinely anonymous – Abby and Peggy seem to have no more idea than we do, although they know the artist is female. How could she smuggle the sculptures into the ten cultural institutions where they were found without ever being noticed? Why were they all addressed to the recipients’ Twitter-handles? She must therefore be familiar with Twitter – perhaps we follow her unknowingly? What is certain is that the artist has a passion for books and libraries and is tremendously creative – as well as the intricacy of the sculptures themselves, just having the idea in the first place and working in all the literary allusions she makes would be beyond most people. So I think there must be others out there who know someone like that and have very strong suspicions, yet they keep the secret too.

The sculptures are at the Mitchell till the 27th before they go off on the next leg of the tour. If you can, I strongly recommend visiting. If you can’t, console yourself with buying the book Gifted – 50p from each copy sold goes to support the Scottish Poetry Library.

So that’s #GLTU6 over. At the end of the evening, talk turned to #GLTU7. There are two schools of thought – leave it till the New Year, or go for a Christmas bash. If we’re going to do the latter, we need to move quickly so opinions are sought as soon as possible. Also, if anyone else has posted any material about the book sculptures visit, please let me know so that I can link it into the blog or Storify.

Announcing #GLTU6: the Edinburgh Book Sculptures, Friday 12/10/12

In 2011, ten mysterious book sculptures were discovered in various Edinburgh venues, the first and last appearing in the Scottish Poetry Library which has now, in conjunction with Edinburgh’s UNESCO City of Literature Trust, arranged a tour of Scotland for them. All ten will be displayed in public together for the first time at libraries across the country (as well as at the Wigtown Book Festival).

The tour is called Gifted : The Edinburgh Book Sculptures on Tour 2012 and it will arrive at the Mitchell Library next month. For more about the tour, see this Vimeo or the SPL’s event page on Facebook. Busy Thistle has left this account of visiting the exhibition in Dundee. If tweeting about it, use the hashtag #GiftEDtour.

GLTU6 will consist of a visit to the exhibition at 4pm on Friday, 12th October and we will be joined by Abby Cunnane from the Scottish Poetry Library (@byleaveswelive) and Peggy Hughes from the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust who will give us added insight into the sculptures and how they were found – it’s interesting, for example, that each sculpture was originally addressed to the Twitter account of the receiving organisation.

For the visit, please meet at the Granville Street entrance to the Mitchell just before 4. For those who want to socialise afterwards, we will adjourn to the nearby Koh-I-Noor at 5.15 for drinks and a curry (pre-theatre menu, £9.95 for 3 courses) – if you can’t make the exhibition, you’re welcome to join us for those. A sign-up is available for both events (you can choose to attend either or both) and I look forward to seeing many of you there.