Books don't necessarily mean bookish or boring. In fact, a number of events have found inventive and unexpected ways to incorporate the common object—and, in some cases, visual representations of them—into environmental designs that recall childhoods, cozy libraries, and artistic expression. From chandeliers made from pages to open books serving as trays for petit fours, here's a look at ways books have been used as decor.
At the 2012 design showcase, David Stark's whimsical installation for sponsor Benjamin Moore played off the slogan “A whole new chapter in paint color technology is being written.” The library-inspired setting featured a table made from actual books with handcrafted pop-up books serving as a centerpiece.
At an AAB Productions wedding—this one at the Altman Building in 2012—the groom was a writer. In that spirit, the table numbers popped out of the pages of open books. The numbers themselves were carved out of book pages using an X-Acto knife.
For an October 2012 wedding at the New York Public Library, Xochitl Gonzalez of AAB Productions designed a chuppah made of books. "We were inspired by the location, of course, but also by a display of books that the groom liked in a bookstore—and, of course, the lightbulb room at the Gramercy Park Hotel," Gonzalez said. "We used books to create the wedding canopy and created spirals as well as a 'shelf' at the top. We wanted a grand library feel, so we used the red drapes as a backdrop, and we opened them up after the cocktail hour. The canopy served as a bar backdrop."
In 2011, Target made perhaps the biggest statement possible using books—a 26-foot-tall sculpture made from 25,000 books. The installation, part of a kickoff event in New York for the retailer's Read Across America campaign, used Dr. Seuss books, which were later donated to local schools.
This year's Romance Novel Convention was held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas August 7 to 11. For an appropriately lavish—and bookish—prop, Romantic Victorian Home Collection designed a dress using the covers and pages of damaged books that had been marked for disposal by the local library.
An outward-facing shelf filled with books served as an appropriate, on-theme lectern for the Children's Book Choice Awards event in New York in May.
At the Toronto gala in 2012, stacks of books supported and decorated the dessert tables. Desserts were served on open books, and chocolate petit fours were topped with a decorative page of writing. Typewriters, globes, and open books added to the presentation.
Bulgari's 2011 fund-raiser for Save the Children and Artists For Peace and Justice used real books—and graphic versions—to create a lavish library look at Ron Burkle's private Los Angeles manse. Sketched fabrics on the tent walls imitated library shelves, while children's books redone with white book jackets served as centerpieces for the tables.
At this year's Sundance Film Festival, the Mint Agency and its sister agency the Branding Bee hosted a series of premiere parties in a pop-up at 614 Main Street in Park City, Utah. As a subtle way to incorporate branding and signage from sponsors into the speakeasy-style decor, the production team used three bookshelves as step-and-repeats.
It may have had nothing to do with books or libraries per se, but Acer's 2010 press conference used floor-to-ceiling projections of books to create a cozy area within the white-walled event venue.
Blowups of pages from the American Cancer Society's history book hung throughout the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel at the springtime gala in Chicago. The pages contained significant facts about the society. HMR Designs handled decor.
In 2010, the lavish launch party for the world’s first dedicated Hermès men’s store turned a raw 20,000-square-foot New York space into the ultimate leisure spot for men. This included a 3,000-square-foot library where the focal point was a wall of 8,000 hand-dyed books.
In 2011, In Style's Golden Globes party with Warner Brothers at the Beverly Hilton had a chic library look designed by Thomas Ford. Ford was inspired by a luxury penthouse and constructed a tent over the hotel pool to transform the space, creating the feel of a dark library with custom black leather tufted couches and 3,000 wrapped books on elaborate bookshelves.
At the Chicago theater's 2012 gala, the theme was "the written word." In Event Creative's decor, pages from a script hung from round chandeliers on the ceiling.
Rhona Frazin, president and C.E.O. of the Chicago Public Library Foundation, said the planning team aimed to "bring the library into the space that we were in" for the benefit at the Forum at the University of Illinois Chicago in 2010. At the end of the evening, guests could take home the Toni Morrison books that topped each table. (Morrison was the evening's guest of honor.) More thematic touches included traditional library lamps on each table.
Blowups of book covers and playbills from works by previous honorees served as decor at the Library Foundation of Los Angeles's gala in 2009.
