Madison Guy's photostream  

The Friends' Bookstore on the second floor of the Central Library was transformed into this "Lepidoterarium" by Angela Richardson and Paul Andrews. On the Library as Incubator Project website, Richardson talked about their installation.

Artists Angela Richardson and Paul Andrews are working with a medium that many library lovers will recognize right away: old card catalog cards. “We’re turning the Friends’ Book Store into something of a post-apocalyptic butterfly conservatory,” Richardson says. “Up from the ruins of abandoned technology comes a glorious transformation.”

Richardson heard about BOOKLESS on the same day she heard that Memorial Library on the UW-Madison campus was removing its card catalog, and the timing was perfect. While preparing the installation with help from friends, the artists also found some wire book supports and microfiche to use. Of their unique materials, Richardson says, “These materials are both beautiful and hold a lot of meaning in relation to library history.”

"Bookless" was the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation.

I like the playful colors and rhythmic, swirling energy of this work by Teresa Getty. Nice useof negative space, too, with the way the muralis squeezed into the corner but reaches across the vast emptiness of the wall. It's nice to have space to work in.

"Bookless" was the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation.

Lake Wingra, Madison.

One of my favorite installations turned inaccessibility into a powerful statement. The Children's Room of the Central Library is where several generations of Madison kids first experienced the joys of the library. But while most of the building was open for Bookless, and while there were lots of kids at the afternoon family event, the Children's Room remained closed in order to protect the Aaron Bohrod mural along the back wall, which is being preserved. Both bookless and childless, the empty space evoked the world of childhood reading through the very absence of children and books. It was as if we were looking at an ethereal ghost world, where all the children and books had disappeared.

Note:There was so much to see and so little time, that in many cases I did not get the name of the artist or title of their work. If you have any information, please leave in the comments. Thanks.

"Bookless," the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation.

Books and other printed materials are often referred to as "dead tree media" by the digerati. One artist literalized this metaphor with a installations made from a truckload of chopped wood. This was one of my favorites, with a library stool and chair embedded in wood, floating in the air.

Note:There was so much to see and so little time, that in many cases I did not get the name of the artist or title of their work. If you have any information, please leave in the comments. Thanks.

"Bookless," the 1-day art and music festival, celebration and fundraiser at the downtown branch of the Madison Public Library, now closed for renovation