Some Wine With Your Outdoor Library?

What do you get when you cram a lawn chock-full of books? A Bookyard!  We love pop-up libraries, from trees to trains. Italian artist Massimo Bartolini has outfitted the gentle slopes of St. Peter’s Abbey in Ghent with 12 sweeping bookcases for the Belgian art festival Track: A Contemporary City Conversation. The installation is actually adjacent to the abbey’s vineyard (the bookcases are aligned with the rows of vines) because Bartolini believes that both good wine and books can broaden the mind.

The Bookyard will be up until the end of the festival in September. Until then, it is open for the public to peruse. The shelves are stocked with public library books that are usually sold at an annual sale. Visitors are encouraged to borrow, exchange or even buy the books.  All those books, lush green grass and a vineyard — perfect inspiration for an afternoon picnic with some light reading!

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