The Book is Dead; Long Live the Book
Junior year, spring
An exhibition & event at NC State University — a product of the class The Library: A Museum ★.
The entire gallery, as seen below in panorama, offered many ways to experience a book.
Shelf, wall, hanging and pedestal displays demarcate the room. All displays were designed and fabricated in-class. The free-standing pedestals are remarkable — a brave project completed by Sonny Patel, Erin Choplin, Natalie Brown and Madiha Malik.
The title wall was designed by Kelley McClure. Typography is lasercut from found books, using both the cover and the knockout.
A video projection, designed by Susannah Brinkley, flips through each book in the exhibit.
Christina Hardison’s exhibition poster, shot in thoughtfully-selected context.
Below: Sarah Blackmon and Meghan O’Brien perform a dry-run for hanging books; their teammates are Jonathan Stephens and Christin Hardy.
Books protected between two layers of plexiglas allow for the viewer to see both page spread and book cover.
Above: Will Calloway interacts with the thoughtfully designed and placed exhibit labels — the work of Jonathan Stephens. Will and Logan Sayles were our honored guests for this in-progress crit.
Meghan O’Brien’s final display, left and below, explores the interactive nature of exhibit labels.
Sarah Blackmon’s exhibit label was a mobile, which asked provocative questions.
These pedestals work well alone and grouped; here they make what our class called the circle of love.
Sonny Patel’s exhibit.
The shelf displays of Susannah Brinkley (birds) and Griffin Friedman (butterflies).
Recognizing the damage light can have on books, the shelf group took precautions to have direct light hit only the posters, not the books, and for a short period of time.
3d butterflies, lasercut from books, adorn Grif’s poster.
Below: Amanda Gregory’s exhibit, left, and Kelley McClure’s, right.
Natalie Brown holds a vacuum-sealed book display, designed by Riley Huston and Christina Hardison. Photograph below reveals the flip-side.
Above: A dry-run exhibit; Riley Huston’s display with patterned wall, left, and Betsy Peters’ book, poster and large graphic. Left: Meghan O’Brien’s caterpillar-eaten lamp shade.
Christina Hardison’s exhibits (above and left) experiment with new materials and projections.
