The Millennium Bookball


George W. Hart




George W. Hart's Millennium Bookball is a geometric sculpture, five feet in diameter, commissioned by the Northport (New York) Public Library. The work is a spherical assemblage of sixty wooden "books," and bronze connecting elements, hanging in the library's two-story main reading room. Its structure is based on the geometry of the rhombic triacontahedron, with components rotated to generate visually interesting internal coherences. The books are made of various hard woods, with the titles and authors of "the best books of the century" carved and gold leafed. These titles were voted on by library patrons, and the sculpture was assembled at a community assembly event, like a barn raising, but for art. Dedicated on December 12, 1999, it is on permanent display, celebrating great books and geometry.