The Gutenbird The Gutenbird is an unrealized suspended artwork intended for a public library. On one level it celebrates the handmade and well crafted and on another level implies the innovative and significant achievements of the first printing press

Lanie Gannon The Gutenbird Proposal for a suspended sculpture created for the Goodlettsville Library: meaning, materials and method. A library is one of the anchors of a community. It is a gathering place that functions as a center for communication and the sharing of information. It makes knowledge and education available to every citizen and in this way is an essential foundation of democracy. At the same time, it is a meditative space where one goes to contemplate, dream, and imagine. In Goodlettsville, I sense both an abiding respect for the past and a strong desire to envision and fashion the future. While it preserves the comfortable smallness of a close-knit community, the wide open spaces, the beauty of the land, and its close proximity to Nashville ensure a quality of life that is vibrant and progressive. This proximity to the city, however, also brings with it the threat of encroachment onto a bucolic landscape. We created an artwork that on one level celebrates the handmade and well crafted, and on another recalls the innovative and forward-looking achievements of the first printing press: the Gutenberg Press. Crafted from wood, the Gutenberg Press established a new art form that allowed for mass producing printed books and the written word. The invention of the printing press was so important that it created the conditions for social and industrial revolution. This shift in the 14th-century cultural and social landscape parallels shifts in our contemporary society, and the digital age that has ushered in new ways of printing, reading, and sharing information. Just as the printing press made it possible for all people to read and to share ideas and knowledge that were once available only to a privileged few, our digital world pushes back and crosses boundaries of all kinds that existed before the Internet. While making the maquette for the suspended sculpture, I began to notice a resemblance between our sculpture design inspired by the early printing press and the Wright Brothers' early wooden glider. My mind kept wandering back to the Wright Brothers and their flying machines, and I was pleased to find out through my reading that Orville and Wilber Wright began their careers by designing and building a printing press, and printing newspapers and books. I think the sounds of language played an important role during the research phase of the project, as well. At the root of the name "Gutenberg" is the German word for good: "gut." This word bore a direct association to the name "Goodlettsville." The associations on the level of words translated into the final visual image of the "Goodlettsville Library Gutenbird." In designing our sculpture we took many things into consideration. We tried to relate the suspended sculpture to the architectural space of the building by responding to the materials used in its design. We considered the shapes, lines, and forms of the building’s aesthetic. We felt it was important to integrate and borrow from the natural materials used by the architects who designed the library. For this reason, we chose maple wood, as the architects did. Maple wood offers a warmth and softness that contrasts with the reflective and hard surfaces of the surrounding glass. The wood also speaks of the hand of the craftsperson. It relates directly to centuries of craft tradition. We also felt it was important to express the historical significance of the printed text. We created elemental forms in the sculpture that resemble the open and fanned out pages of a book. This is a reference to the books in the library, and also a nod to the old card catalogue system that most of us grew up with and still feel comfortable with. It is a sculptural homage to the importance of the book as a sacred object, which contains within its pages the history of the world and the knowledge of our forebears. Finally, we wanted to draw together both the natural environment and human technological and cultural achievements in our sculpture. We suggest the feel and look of paper and pages from a book by digitally printing, on off-white acrylic panels, illustrations of old engravings depicting the flora, fauna and agriculture native to the Goodlettsville landscape. Juxtaposed with the wood structure, the look and durability of the acrylic panels give the sculpture a very contemporary feel. We tried to forge a relationship between the wood, with its classic and timeless qualities, and the digital images printed on acrylic, which brings us into the present and beyond. Our intention is to give the “Gutenbird” wings. We aspire to make a sculpture for the new Goodlettsville Library that allows the mind and the imagination to take flight. We hope to make a significant and enlightened artwork for the library, its readers, and for the people residing in the community of Goodlettsville. Lanie Gannon lanie@laniegannon.com