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3,960 Books Make a Giant Sculpture

If you happen to live up in Northern California, you may have heard about the recent opening of the Walnut Creek library. The $40 million dollar library houses 17 original works of art at a cost of $300,000. Described as elegant, clean and refined as the stores that surround it, this library is meant to be a destination. An eye-catching two-story-high sculpture entitled Shhh…Portrait in 12 Volumes of Gray, created by Christian Moeller, a UCLA design and media arts professor, welcomes visitors to the library. Composed of 3,960 books with covers in 12 different shades of gray, the artwork displays the image of a woman's face as she makes a “shhh” signal. Each book spine represents one pixel in the entire image. “It's proven to be a fun thing for folks to discover, and we've put a sign near the piece telling people to look at it through their cell phone to see the image,” said Gayle Vassar, communications and outreach manager for the City of Walnut Creek. Read more about this amazing sculpture at UCLA and watch how Christian Moeller put it together in a time-lapse video, below.

Sources: SF Gate and @issue

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