I have been enchanted following the mystery of the glorious paper scupltures that magically appear around Edinburgh centers of books and stories. Have you seen one? First of all, no one knows who makes them, and while the artist deserves a great deal of credit, I have to hope the mystery isn’t solved for years and years. Secondly, they’re technically brilliant, beautifully crafted, and quite small – most seem to be able to balance on one palm or maybe two. Third, they’re clever – literary references abound. Recipients (being eopteniaphiles** themselves) have assembled clues in the sculptures to find direct The delicate sculptures usually refer to a particular author, and there are specific details built into them that show the artist has a clear vision, fortified by the message on each gift tag.
If you’ve seen any of these, I’d love to hear from you about it! What was it like? Where was it?
(**Eopteniaphile is a word I just made up, meaning people who really like stories)
- “A gift in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…”
Each of these just appear – sometimes staff don’t know how long they’ve been there by the time they are discovered. For example, this one from the Scottish Storytelling Center was apparently very well hidden. The tag reads, “For @scotstorycenter – A gift in support of libraries, books, works, ideas….. Once upon a time there was a book and in the book was a nest and in the nest was an egg and in the egg was a dragon and in the dragon was a story…..”
- Nothing beats a nice cup of tea…and a BOOK…
the top has a swirl of words which read ” Nothing beats a nice cup of tea (or coffee) and a really good BOOK” and on the ‘tray’ next to the cupcake it says “except maybe a cake as well”. Amen to that.
There’s been lots of press** about these as the mystery continues. This Central Station has a good web article with great pictures of more of these gems. The Daily Art Fixx has some nice coverage; even BoingBoing has been intrigued.
**Just Google “Edinburgh paper sculptures” to find dozens of articles on them.
