So this is what it looks like when a library vomits books. Just kidding - it's actually an art installation by Spanish artist Alicia Martín, titled Biografias, made from about 5,000 books:
The Spain-based artist's sculptural installation at Casa de America, Madrid depicts a cavalcade of books streaming out of the side of a building. The whirlwind of literature defies gravity and draws attention with its grandeur size. There have been three site-specific installations, thus far, of the massive sculptural works in this series known as Biografias, translated as Biographies, that each feature approximately 5,000 books sprawled out around and atop one another.
Martin's giant book structures give life to the inanimate objects filled with knowledge. By constructing the curving towers with a rather free and disheveled exterior, while maintaining a sturdy core, the books' loose pages are free to blow and rustle in the wind, allowing the piece to be further animated.
My Modern Met has the details: Link
Yes, some might get donated to worth causes, but a large number of them go to facilities where they are sorted and shredded so that the paper can be recycled.
Perhaps some of those books that were destined to be destroyed made there way into this sculpture instead.
I do wonder, as others have, however, what happens when the books get wet.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150253603399618&set=a.211168469617.124260.613474617&type=3&theater
in the rain
Well she thought of it first.
Yawn!