Caught outside the press yurt at the Edinburgh International Book Festival—one of the celebrated mystery bird book sculptures, which had just been flying around the festival in Charlotte Square Gardens, getting itself signed by all the assembled writers.
The book sculptures have now become such cult items that there is even a book available on them—”Gifted to the City of Words and Ideas: The Tale of 10 Mysterious Book Sculptures”—available on Kindle or in hard copy. There’s even a map that will show you where to find them all.
And here’s one of the proudest—the paper peacock, now on display at the festival Signing Tent:
Here’s the one that started the whole thing, though—the “Poetree” sculpture from the Scottish Poetry Library:
I find myself feeling shocked that the writers have all signed the piece. The act of signing is a claim to be the maker of the piece, which they are not. Also, they’ve materially altered the piece by sticking their names on it. What a cheek! It looks awful. Shame.