I make large temporary sculptures from old books, which I collected from the public in the UK. The sculptures vary in size, from approximately 1 metre cubed to 120 metres long. After the books are metamorphosed into a temporary sculptural form, they are carefully dismantled and redistributed.

What inspired me? Timbuktu, Mali.

My first book sculpture, a 120 metre long Remembrance Labyrinth I designed, was made using old books for the labyrinth walls. In a collaboration with Ray Jacobs, I felt that i wanted to make the walls from books after visiting Timbuktu and hearing a description that thousands of manuscripts had been built into the walls of homes in an attempt to hide precious libraries from invaders. This resonated with me - having just inherited a veritable library from my artist parents, and as a student of sustainable architecture looking for ways to make carbon friendly artwork.

The resulting Labyrinth artwork was as much about the collection of the 7000 used books, gathered from the local community, as the creation of it with local volunteers and the books distribution afterwards. All the books used in the Labyrinth went directly to charities after the installation was dismantled, including Oxfam, The Severn Hospice and The Princes Trust.

Later sculptures included the Drink Deep Oxfam Book sculpture at my solo exhibition called ‘Meetings in the Middle of Somewhere’, in Walsall.

At Wenlock Poetry Festival I made live book sculptures with festival visitors who brought donations of books with them.