Artist creates seemingly magical book that glows from within

A Japanese experimental artist has captured the imaginations of thousands of fantasy and anime fans by creating a seemingly magical book in which the letters keep shining brighter and brighter as the reader approaches its conclusion.

Uka Ohashi, an experimental novelist currently studying design at an art university, created her amazing book as a class assignment, based on an actual novel that she wrote. The original idea was to incorporate the concept of glowing letters in an entire book, with the illuminated pages making up the conclusion and lighting up brighter and brighter as the reader approached the end. However, time was of the essence, so she only made the conclusion as a proof of concept. It still turned out amazing!

The artist started out by cutting the Japanese characters into the pages of her book using a precise laser cutter, and then bound them all in a book with an LED strip glued to the spine. When activated, the LEDs light a warm, magical light through the pages and create the illusion of glowing characters.

 

これは活字を切っているところ なめらかで見惚れていました

 

“I wanted to create a book in which the printed letters keep glowing brighter as [the story] heads towards its dazzling conclusion,” Ohashi wrote on Twitter.

 

眩しい結末に向かうにつれて、活字がどんどん強く発光する本を作りました

 

Sadly for fantasy fans, the glowing letter book is not yet commercially available, but judging by the 43,000 retweets and 156,000 likes that Uka Ohashi’s tweeted photos received, there is definitely an interest for it. So, who knows, maybe someday…