Word Stack Sculpture with Books
Inspired by Justin Richel, Endless Column
Justin Richel creates sculptures by stacking objects on top of each other to build tall, playful columns that tell a story. In this activity, we will use books to create a stacked sculpture with words.
Justin Richel (United States, b. 1979), Endless Column, 2013, Slip-cast and hand-built vitreous china. Museum purchase with support from the Contemporary Art Fund, in memory of Bernice McIlhenny Wintersteen, 2013.28a-ss.
Materials Needed
Books that have words (titles) on the spines
A pencil (or writing utensil) and paper
Prepare
Look through your collection of books as inspiration to create a stacked poem or story using titles on the spines of books you have around your house.
What titles stick out to you or catch your eye? What words can you draw inspiration from that could be a part of your story or poem stack?
Instructions
Once you have picked out books to use for this activity, begin stacking the books on top of each other in different ways. The book spine titles will offer different words to use to build your story or poem. Take your time to stack the books in different arrangements.
While you are creating your book stack, consider how balance and the depth of words and sculpture play a role. Each component in Richel’s sculpture is purposeful to create the next layer in the column, exactly as your book spines can offer different words that come together to create your complete story or poem.
Once you have an arrangement that you like, you can write down your poem or short story using the writing utensil and paper. Feel free to write down the full titles, or just use words from each of the titles.
Share your poem or story with someone!
If you’d like, you can also rearrange the books you have to see how many different arrangements you can make.
For an added challenge, see how many books you can use to create your story or poem and safely see how tall your stack can grow!