Inspiration for the Day

Look here for more photos of these extraordinary pieces from artist Matthew Picton. They’re “map sculptures”: that is, paper sculptures of cities. But here’s the twist: the city is made up of books and other textual materials related to that respective city. And not only that, but the texts which the artist picks are usually meant to create a commentary on the city during a particular time. Case in point, the photo below, which is London, circa 1666. The texts are book covers of “A Journal of the Plague Year” by Daniel Defoe.

Just imagine the possibilities available to us with the collections in the Los Angeles Public Library. A 1930 map of downtown with covers from Hammett and Chandler? A “future” Los Angeles using pages from City of Quartz? Or, imagine your own maps with the information in “A Journey Through Literary America.” (available in our store!)

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