The Books Became Light

Wax, aluminium chanels, LED lights, 207 × 45 × 4 cm, 2026

Heythrop College Library held more than 250,000 books and journals, making it one of the finest collections of theology and philosophy in the United Kingdom. When the Jesuit college closed, its library was dispersed and the building prepared for conversion into a hotel.

Before the library door was removed, I asked the caretaker if I could borrow it. I spent weeks casting it in translucent wax and illuminating it from within. Stripped of its original purpose, the door became a quiet monument to a place where generations had gone in search of knowledge, faith and meaning.

Much of my practice begins with objects that are about to disappear. By remaking them in wax, I preserve their form while accepting their fragility. The material holds memory rather than permanence, inviting us to consider what survives when places, institutions and the worlds they sustained come to an end.

The books have long since left the shelves. Yet in this work, they return as light.