Books! Lots and lots and lots of beautiful gouache & ink books drawn by American artist Jane Mount. These are just a few pieces from a huge, ongoing series titled Ideal Bookshelf :

I paint people’s ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are.
Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!). I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out.
I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate. In the age of the Kindle (which I also love, btw), it’s very satisfying.

Ok, that’s it… I’m going to look through all of my books and make my own ‘ideal bookshelf’ right this very minute!

{I found Jane’s work on 20×200, when I was putting yesterday’s giveaway post together… stay tuned, at 3pm EST today I’ll announce the winner of the 20×200 gift certificate! You could get yourself some of Jane’s books!}