Polish designer Ania Jaworska initially studied architecture before attending the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where she integrated her background in drafting and architectural history into her studio practice. This influence can be seen throughout her work, in which she reimagines canonical architectural forms. In the present lot, Jaworska reworks the standard bookshelf by having it curve, peeling away from the wall and sitting as a distinct demarcation of space. Each vertical shelf makes a half column, an architectural form that Jaworska has returned to many times. “The column,” she explains, “has become a complex symbol that embodies issues of status, taste, tradition and advancement. It has been celebrated and misused, reinvented and ridiculed.” Whereas this architectural form is usually integral to the structure, Jaworska makes it decorative and freestanding.