es devlin's triangular bookshelf rotates within a mirrored pool for miami art week 2025

es devlin turns miami’s faena beach into a rotating book arena

Es Devlin unveils Library of Us, a vast, glowing amphitheater of books, sound, and movement that serves as the major centerpiece of Faena Art Miami Art Week 2025. Marking ten years of Faena Art in Miami Beach, Devlin’s commission stretches across the shoreline as a kinetic, 6-meter-tall triangular bookshelf that rotates on its axis, its reflection amplified by a surrounding pool and a circular reading table that seats hundreds.

On view until December 7th, 2025, the installation acts as a public library, an illuminated sculpture, and an arena for collective reading, forming the core of a district-wide program of talks, performances, and communal rituals. Beyond its physical scale, Library of Us continues Devlin’s ongoing investigation into libraries as kinetic sculptures. Earlier in 2025 she presented Library of Light at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, where daily collective readings drew nearly 200,000 visitors (find designboom’s previous coverage here). 

all images by Sunn Studio

a kinetic library that reorganizes time and encounter

At the center of the beach installation sits the 15-meter-long triangular bookshelf, holding 2,500 books and a continuous 10-meter LED line that streams text across its spine. The entire structure turns once every ten minutes, creating a quiet, perceptible drift that affects the people seated around it. Visitors read at a two-ring circular table, an outer circle that stays still and an inner circle that rotates with the sculpture, resulting in shifting perspectives. Every slow rotation introduces a new passage, a new neighbor across the table, and a subtle sense of shared temporality.

A 250-excerpt audio score, read by Devlin herself, lays out a polyphonic field of voices, memories, and literary fragments, underscored by music. Materials such as steel, marine plywood, mirror, water, and LED turn the beach into a reflective, fluid environment where text moves at the pace of tides and pages.

When the week concludes, all 2,500 books from Library of Us, supplied through a partnership with Penguin Random House, will be donated to public libraries, schools, and community organizations across Miami.

Es Devlin unveils Library of Us

reading room and tracing time expand the project indoors

Two additional commissions complement the beach installation and deepen Devlin’s study of reading, time, and community. In the Faena Cathedral, the Reading Room appears as a 14-meter bench with an integrated bookshelf and LED screen. The work is built from phrases contributed by the entire Faena hotel staff, housekeeping, gardeners, restaurant teams, security, maintenance, and long-time collaborators. Devlin reads these texts aloud throughout the day as the phrases rise along the display, offering a participatory portrait of a hotel rendered through the books, songs, and poems that shape the lives of the people who work within it.

Meanwhile, in the Faena Art Project Room, Tracing Time presents drawings and paintings on glass, paper, and TV screens. These works offer a close reading of Devlin’s process, its layers, repetitions, and mark-making, mirroring the slow accumulations that define her large-scale installations. Together, the three works form a rare survey of Devlin’s multidisciplinary practice, bridging sound, architecture, text, scenography, and performance through the shared concern of how communities gather around language. 

a vast, glowing amphitheater of books, sound, and movement | image by Oriol Tarridas

the major centerpiece of Faena Art Miami Art Week 2025

Devlin’s commission stretches across the shoreline as a kinetic, 6-meter-tall triangular bookshelf

the installation rotates on its axis | image by Oriol Tarridas

a surrounding pool reflects the bookshelf | image by Oriol Tarridas

a reading table that seats hundreds encircles Library of Us | image by Oriol Tarridas

the entire structure turns once every ten minutes

a continuous 10-meter LED line streams text across its spine | image by Oriol Tarridas

an outer circle stays still and an inner circle rotates with the sculpture | image by Oriol Tarridas

every slow rotation introduces a new passage | image by Oriol Tarridas

steel, marine plywood, mirror, water, and LED turn the beach into a reflective, fluid environment

text moves at the pace of tides and pages

when the week concludes, all 2,500 books from Library of Us will be donated | image by Oriol Tarridas

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Library of Us continues Devlin’s ongoing investigation into libraries as kinetic sculptures | image by Oriol Tarridas

a 250-excerpt audio score, read by Devlin herself, lays out a polyphonic field of voices | image by Oriol Tarridas

books and reflection become part of the city’s coastal landscape | image by Oriol Tarridas

the rotation affects the people seated around it | image by Oriol Tarridas

visitors read at a two-ring circular table | image by Oriol Tarridas

 

project info:

name: Library of Us

artist: Es Devlin | @esdevlin

location: Faena Beach, Miami Beach, Florida

dates: December 1st–7th, 2025

commissioned by: Faena Art | @faenaart