artwork by Grace Bonney 28

ideal bookshelves


i’m not a huge book person, but i live with someone who is, and it’s fascinating how much you can tell about someone’s personality through their book choices. aaron’s collection ranges from politics and music to sports and plays he studied in college, and i love imagining him at different ages being engrossed by different genres of books. so when i got an email from the curiosity shoppe about a fun little project they’re doing with artist jane mount, i was immediately intrigued.

jane paints “ideal bookshelves” that belong to individuals she knows. they are usually grouped thematically, focusing on say, cooking books, sci fi, politics, etc. i really enjoyed looking through her archives online, but had even more fun imagining which of these most closely fit my personality (it was a tie between the cook books and the grouping with twilight in it). lauren and derek are putting together a show of jane’s work at the shoppe, and are going to have some of their friends and favorite artists’ bookshelves drawn by jane for the occasion. i can’t wait to see the show in person (date TBA) but until you can check out pages and pages of jane’s bookshelf archives right here.



28 Comments

gary wallworth

How inspiring!?! I love this! I would love to add this inspirational idea to actual bookshelving!
Brightened my already sunny day!

Kate

Forget Kindle, this is what I’m talkin’ about people! I’d rather carry around the aesthetics of my collections. Thanks for turning me on to Jane’s work!

Melinda

I love this! Bookshelves full of books is pretty much my favorite thing. You really can tell a lot about a person by the books on their shelves and I could love a painting that reflected my eclectic taste in books.

m

so cute! my mom just bought my little niece and nephew pat the bunny for easter (1st image) and i’m now reading eggers’ what is the what (3rd image). these are awesome.

Valerie

I really like these. But I am a book person. What I think is funny though, is the difference between what I actually read and what I would want captured in art as what I read. They are different.

Sondra

Very creative, love these paintings. What an idea! I have a ton of books and treasure them. Would love to see my art books in a painting. Thanks for sharing this unique work.
Best…

alison

see design people, books look cool even when they’re not grouped together by color!

Quindome

I love this! I do firmly believe in browsing someone’s bookshelf when you first meet them. But I agree with Valerie… Do I really want to be judged by my vast amount of coffee table books?

cathie

i love these! i totally agree that a bookshelf reveals so much about a person. what fun pieces!

Becky

I really like this — I’m a book lover, but live in such a tiny house I don’t like how cluttered they all look hence I’ve narrowed down my collection to my absolute favs which I could totally see as a drawing since I’ve kept only about 20 books.

Shelley

I love this but could find nothing like my bookshelves. Where is the Dickens and the Austen. How about Sir Authur Conan Doyle? And I know it is not PC but the #1 bestseller of all time is not in one of those shelves- the Bible.

Michael

Just discovered your site by accident, really inspiring. Love this bookshelves. Amazing. Usually the first thing I study when I visit a friend’s home for the first time…

Pencils

That’s fabulous. And I love seeing someone else with The Quincunx, I adore that book.

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