Open Book at the Library

960 4th Street
Mission Bay

This piece, by Vince Koloski, is in the Mission Bay Branch Library. The artwork is an illuminated book sculpture with quotes about reading and text from a variety of ancient and contemporary cultures.

Vince Koloski was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1953. In 1977 he attended New College in Sarasota, Florida and graduated with a dual B.A. in Sculpture and Poetry. Koloski returned to Minneapolis to refine his craft as a neon sculptor and skilled neon glassblower. He spent two years as a neon instructor in the Extension Division of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He was an integral member of the original group that founded the American School of Neon and St. Elmo’s Gallery.

Koloski now resides in San Francisco specializing in glass and neon.

According to Koloski’s website the sculpture follows the form of an accordion-fold book starting with a “cover” panel carved to look like a rock slab covered with petroglyphs. This is followed by eight 5-foot high by 4-foot wide Lexan panels which serve as the pages of the book. Each of these pages holds two smaller panels of Plexiglass whch have been engraved with the text of a quotation or hand carved with an illustration. The final panel serves as the rear “cover” of the book. It is a wood panel covered with small illustations and symbols which tell the history of the Mission Bay neighborhood from prehistory to the present.

The Plexiglass panels engraved with the quotations and illustrations are illuminated by LED lights along the edges of the panels. These LEDs shine into the panel and create a colored glow withing each quotation and illustration. This allows the spirit of the quotations to shine whether the library is open or closed much as the spirit of the library itself is felt whether the building itself is open or closed.

There are twelve quotations in the book. They were chosen by a committee of community members, libary staff and members of the Arts Commission from the submissions of Library patrons. Among them are quotes from local authors Anne Lamott, Ben Fong-Torres and Jewelle Gomez. Others with their words in light are Spike Lee, Groucho Marx and Jorge Luis Borges.

There are four hand-carved illustrations among the pages as well. These illustrations trace the development of human writing from the cuneiform to just before modern printing began.

This piece was part of the SF Arts Commission 2006-2007 budget year and was commissioned for $36,000.