I haven’t done a Stacked Stacks in awhile, and despite this photo of a shelf designed by Mike and Maaike having been around for quite some time, I wanted to share it with you all.
When we talk about books making us think, we often mean that the content of the book sparked our curiosity or caused us to contemplate and analyze our long-held beliefs (or in some cases, define what we believe).
Rarely do we mean anything beyond that. What makes this shelf so amazing is its combination of design (notches cut to the size of individual books) and its ability to turn design into art. Like books, art often makes us think–there is a message or implied meaning to paintings and sculptures, especially when the subject matter is religious in nature. What you can’t see in the long shot is that these books are,
The world’s most influential religious texts brought together and presented on the same level, their coexistence acknowledged and celebrated. -apartment therapy*
A commenter on Apartment Therapy described the shelf as a way to showcase “sacred objects”–in this case, the book’s contents are considered sacred to their respective religions. But sacred object can also be something more personal.
Displaying your books doesn’t have to just be about what looks pretty on the shelves or an arrangement idea you swiped from a catalog. The arrangement of books can say something about their content and their owner. The way you display them can be a work of art in their own right, a way to share a message or an idea.
Remember, meaning does not just have to exist between the covers.
*The comments in reply to the AT post prove the powers of art and books to make us think. Members of the site had a few thought provoking things to say such as: [More after the jump]
“Now if only the people who follow these religions could live in such beautiful harmony…”
“If only they included a slot for Darwin’s Descent of Manor Dawkin’s The God Delusion…”
“I like the way it looks, but honestly it’s an insult to all of those religions. If you actually take your religion seriously, then why would you want to imply that yours is on the same level as all the others?”
“The ‘religions’ aren’t at the same level. Some go deeper (on the bottom, per the pic). Conceptually, a little odd to only see religion or whatever topic from only one position instead of considering all sides/perspectives.”
“[N]ot such a fan of the canon of religious texts idea. Sure these are some of the greats, but that shelf seems to imply that there should be no room for other religious texts…Also, why can’t you just buy different editions of the same books that are all the same height?”
On another site someone else had this to say: “Do you think the empty right hand side represents Atheism?”
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