The upcoming release of Killing the Emperors (the new satirical crime novel by Ruth Dudley Edwards featuring in the line of fire: the world of conceptual art) has had us girls in the office talking about the value, or lack of, (therein lies the debate) of modern art, the likes of Damien Hirst, the Turner Prize etc.

Now, cows in formaldehyde have never been my thing (I’ll leave this topic for a future post) and I won’t be rushing to be a Tate Member any time soon, but news of this current art installation (part of the Cultural Olympiad) did peak my interest. aMAZEme is ‘an art project that unites literature, performance, installation, image and cinema.’  In simpler terms – it’s a book labyrinth!

From the description about the installation it appears that there are ‘secrets hidden in the installation’s walls’ (not sure if they mean this metaphorically – as in the fact that books could hold secrets within their pages – or that there are actually hidden messages somehow built into the structure) and the exhibit also includes performances by literary figures.

I’m sure these things enhance the experience and all, but I have never walked through a maze of 250,000 books before, and on that unintellectual basis alone, I think it’s pretty cool. And to further highlight my non-cerebral reaction to this structure, I can’t help looking at the photo below without getting the urge to pinch a book from the middle.  In fact, I’d like to propose an alternative title for the installation (which could indeed have sparked an arguably more interesting interactive project): Literary Jenga.

Chiara Priorelli, Publicity & Online Marketing Manager