City Market has long been a location of farmers’ markets and food vendors. The sculpture is inspired by agricultural equipment that uses Earth’s natural resources to produce food. The sculpture is designed to look and act like agricultural equipment by digging the books out of the Earth and cycling them towards the viewer. The piece represents the industrialization of agriculture and relates it to the industrialization of publishing, specifically the linotype machine, which was created within two years of the finished construction of City Market. Machinery is used to feed the mass population with food as well as information and knowledge. The sculpture represents the viewer’s ability to pick information much like food and, as such, harvest knowledge.

From: http://www.thepubliccollection.org/artists/brose-partington/