 The gallery at San Antonio Central Library has been transformed into a book garden, a home to oversized southwestern lizards, busts of Renaissance men, Zen rocks, and other sculptures all created by Taiwanese-born artist Lung Bin Chen. As the exhibit opened, we talked to Lung Bin Chen about how his work has evolved and what ideas and materials are under the surface of these carvings. The lizards were made especially for this installation, but the other pieces go back as much as 20 years and have appeared in very different exhibits from Los Angeles to Charleston, South Carolina, Atlanta, Rome, and Hong Kong. Lung Bin Chen's sculptures are much, much more than first meets the eye. Most times, for the fun part, most people, we think this wood carving, or marble, or stone carving, then turn around, then they will find some image, or some part that can show our kind of book of this material fun part. So the inspiration for the shape comes from the book? Yeah, yeah. So, and all the objects, all the sculptures, sometimes we relate to the title of the book and we involve with another issue. The shape was not only meaning from the foam and the meaning of the figure, and also relate to the inside, inside of the book, of the book. Lung Bin Chen said he was influenced by Marshall McLuhan, who authored the pioneering and influential theory that the medium is the message. In a book published in 1964, the year Lung Bin Chen was born, McLuhan wrote that the characteristics of the medium have more of an effect on society than the content it carries. Looking at his own work, Lung Bin Chen said, the medium transforms the subject and becomes the message. So, in the beginning, I used a lot of phone books, because at one phone book a day, we contain about 1,000 names, company, and people's telephone number. It means a small sculpture can contain a small society. And it's a big, big, very surprise for me and for people. One sculpture, they become a small society inside. You can find some small stone I was carving 20 years ago. This one was made from the phone book. So, because phone book was from the recycling paper, so the quality is not so good and then very easy to turn yellow. But it's already 20 years ago, you still can see the picture. I believe it's a white page. And then the color becomes brown, turns to yellow. Yeah, and think about some small stone and inside have 1,000 telephone number inside. One small society inside. So, it's exciting to me. For many years, I was finding the material on the street, because in New York, it's very easy to find a book. And almost every week, they have two days for people to throw away recycling paper. Then I collect the paper from the street. And also the phone book that we update every year, two times, even sometimes three times. So, during the change of recycling day, I can pick up so many new phone books. So, almost the material was free. Then later, I find out I can travel because every city also have a recycling system. So, I do a lot of residency in different cities, different countries, because the machine is the same. I can find the same machine, set up my studio workshop very easy. So, I think since 2000, I begin to do a lot of residency from New York to LA to Atlanta and then to Roma to India to Hong Kong. Because people was excited, it's a new way to carving book become artwork. And I developed this kind of technique. And a lot of people were very excited. So, some gallery owner or some institution director, they were interested in inviting me to do a residency. And find a local material, turn to the art show. So, I almost do a residency more than 10 years from the city to the city from different countries. So, tell me about the technique. You said you could use telephone books. You said you used other kinds of books. So, you put them together and then you cover them? Yeah. In beginning, I was making small one, small head, and look like a focal art. And actually inside of book is not anything. So, you still can open. But look like a stone carving. Actually, it was soft because my artwork you can open. It seems like open a book. So, every page was separate. Then later become, because I need make a big sculpture or big object, then I put school, nail, now I put some coating. So, from the soft sculpture turn to the heart. Then turn to from single object, single sculpture become installation. And so Longbin Chen's work evolved from soft sculptures that open like books, to larger objects held together by screws and nails, with a coating, a hard stone like carvable surface. Longbin Chen's work went from a single piece of art to a collection arranged in an installation, like the book garden he created in the gallery of the San Antonio Central Library.