Paul St John Mackintosh posted some intriguing sleuth work at Teleread this month, occasioned by the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The work—and identity—of the MBAE (Mystery Book Artist of Edinburgh) has been a recurrent theme throughout the Festival. She has delivered works specifically for the Festival, which are part of her “Free to Fly” campaign (see @_freetofly_). One of them has attracted the autographs of some of the celebrated authors in attendance.
On his way back to his digs in Edinburgh, Mackintosh says,
I stopped off at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art to see their fascinating “Witches and Wicked Bodies” exhibition. In their permanent collection is this work by André Breton, entitled Poème Objet (Poem-Object):
Poème Objet, André Breton
Mackintosh notes several other distinctive works in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that find echoes in the works left by the MBAE in various places around Edinburgh such as the Leith Library and the Scottish Poetry Library. Edinburgh’s mystery book sculptures even have their own Wikipedia page.
MBAE’s “Free to Fly” campaign, run appropriately from her Twitter account, came to a close on the 21st of August, but as she writes in her farewell,
Book Patrol‘s coverage of the Guardian‘s story dates back to July 2011, but because it is one of the most frequently viewed entries at Book Patrol and the artist has been frequently cited here, BOB cannot pass it up.
“Last month, the book art piece above was found at the National Library of Scotland. It was the fourth piece found since March in a book-friendly location in Scotland. All references are devised from the work of Scottish mystery writer Ian Rankin and include a note professing some book love.
First it was the Scottish Poetry Library where a ‘poetree’ was discovered on a bookshelf. The ‘poetree,’ comprised of intricately cut pages, had a note attached referencing a Patrick Geddes quote and the library’s Twitter name,@byleaveswelive.
Next up was a piece left at in the box office of Filmhouse Cinema with the following note ““For @filmhouse – a gift – In support of Libraries, Books, Words, Ideas…&; All things *magic*.”
