Artist Uses The Book of Mormon to Create 41-ton Sculpture

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Glen Warchol

"The Fourth Thousand Words" By Adam Bateman

UTAH - The museum’s “The Matter of Words,” a three-artist exhibit that has been attracting and challenging visitors since it opened last month, is a case in point. The eye-popping, jaw-dropping sculpture is Adam Bateman’s “The Fourth Thousand Years,” some 100,000 books formed into a towering monolith. In installing the 41-ton Bateman sculpture, a base had to be built to protect the museum’s floor. A number of copies of The Book of Mormon, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ most sacred text, were cut to make a façade to hide the base. About 70 percent to 80 percent of the 100,000 books in the sculpture are Mormon-related, including church publications, teaching manuals, writings of church leaders, and scriptures, including Bibles and copies of the Book of Mormon, says Bateman, a Weber State University art instructor and a BYU graduate. The books were donated by the Provo nonprofit Worldwide Book Drive, which will get them back when the sculpture is dismantled. [link]