Bright Idea

Designers are getting inventive with their use of old books. Not too long ago we saw Not Tom’s Book Bookshelf, which is actually made of unwanted books, both paperback and hardcover (Not Tom does Not discriminate). And designer David Karoff presented Book Chair, a chair constructed of repurposed paperbacks.
Now Ragip Erdem is using old hardcovers to make lamps. The transparently titled Book Lamp (and why not be obvious, since you want people to see the light?) uses one tome to create a unique lighting fixture.



Available as a table light or pendant light, Book Lamp uses all the parts of the book: pages, spine, and front and back covers. The idea behind the design is to emphasize the metaphorical beauty of the book, as well as to take advantage of the book as an object, which may be disappearing as it gets replaced by digitized versions. The romance of the book struck designer Erdem quite early: “When I was in high school just glancing at my books on the book shelves used to take me to the exotic worlds.” His Book Lamp attempts to harness “that lost mysterious feeling.”



But Book Lamp works on a literal level as well, celebrating books as objects, turning them “into sculpturesque icons.” As such, Book Lamp is steeped in the atmospheric and the symbolic. The light it emanates works to set a mood; it is not meant to be used as a task light. Designer Ragip Erdem will custom make any order based on your literary tastes. Art and coffee table books lend themselves quite well to the creation of Book Lamp, which leaves open a world of possibilities. While he has completed Book Lamps around titles such as Maui and Chocolate, the possibilities are as far-reaching as the entire history of literature. You can create a beaming beacon out of fantastic fairy tales or weighty world histories.