Poets & Writers magazine highlights the work of artist Richard Baker, who paints still-lifes of books.

“As physical objects they are powerful fetishes, icons, containers of every conceivable thought and/or emotion,” Baker writes. “We cart them from home to work on our commutes and they accompany us on vacations. We move them carefully packed in boxes from one domicile to another, from one phase of life to another.”

“As our personalities are changed (or not) by them, so too do they absorb impressions of our lives,” Baker writes. “Each book becomes its own unique individual, most especially true of the lowly paperback.”

Over at GOOD magazine’s blogs, Anne Trubek ponders what they mean.