Book sculptor puts video online that signals end of era

IT seemed he had retired from baffling Edinburgh with ever more elaborate models carved from the pages of books.

But the city’s mystery book sculptor has struck again by making one more – albeit temporary – Christmas creation.

The artist has posted an online video showing the carving of a festive scene that ends with a giant Santa boot stamping on the model – suggesting the campaign is now over for good.

Posted under the Twitter name abook4Xmas, a message reads: “In support of libraries, books, words, ideas, and wishing you a magical Xmas.”

The Evening News has agreed not to name the artist involved, after tracking him down earlier in the year, to keep the mystery alive.

His campaign has seen ten intricate sculptures carved from the pages of books at cultural hotspots across the city.

The new video features paper horses galloping across the tome while a bizarre figure appears to bring the trees to life – all the while accompanied by music. At one point, the tree is illuminated as birds fly across the screen.

Among those to receive the tweet were the Edinburgh Filmhouse, Ian Rankin and the National Museum of Scotland.

Jenny Leask, programme marketing coordinator at the Filmhouse, said: “It’s lovely, and it’s really fantastic to get a film that’s related to all those beautiful sculptures.

“He or she is keeping people on their toes with this.

“I was really surprised to get the video actually, because when the last sculptures were found it sounded like that was it.”

The Filmhouse was one of the first places to receive a sculpture – a cinema with Ian Rankin in the audience – back in June. “I don’t think there is any doubt that this is the work of the book sculptor, clearly a lot of time and work has gone in to it,” said Jenny.

The artist announced his run of sculptures had come to an end last month after the creation of three final sculptures left at the Poetry Library and the National Museum of Scotland, with another delivered to the Edinburgh Book Shop for Ian Rankin.

The artist left a message, which read: “Often a good story ends where it begins.”

Edinburgh Book Shop sales assistant Lila Matsumoto said: “We thought it was the greatest Christmas card we have ever received.”