Mike Stilkey’s home is full of books. And though he most certainly collects them, it’s not a habit that stems from reading frenzies. The thousands upon thousands of hardcover books he obtains from libraries, garage sales, and publisher’s back stocks are used to paint on. But hold on, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Before he even thinks of dipping his brush in paint, Stilkey arranges the books (spines out) into tall, free-standing stacks, which he then uses as the most moveable canvas in the world.
     Hot off the success of a seminal installation at the Corey Helford show in the U.K., Art from the New World, his new show, Reminiscent is a series of book sculptures for the inaugural exhibition at the new Hurley’s )( Space Gallery in Costa Mesa, California. For the show, Stilkey created two 10 x 12-foot murals, one painted with the image of a wan man playing the piano, the other a portrait of a woman. Each mural took roughly 5,000 recycled books to construct.
     True bibliophiles may cringe at the notion of wasting a good read for artistic purposes, but Stilkey’s reverence for the written word is evident. By meticulously collecting, stacking, and eventually painting down the spines of these lost books Stilkey is saving them from the dubious fate of a sealed cardboard box or library dumpster.