Boston Public Library’s Central branch just got a striking new centerpiece. LEXICON, a 23-foot suspended installation by designer and engineer Alfonso Parra Rubio with Erik Strand, now hangs in Deferrari Hall — the grand atrium at the heart of the Boylston Street building — through November 1.
What LEXICON Actually Is
The piece is a collaboration between MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and BPL itself, and it’s designed to be two things at once: a public art installation you can simply stand under and take in, and a working demonstration of new materials research coming out of MIT’s design and fabrication labs. It’s a direct link between the city’s research institutions and its creative community, staged in a prominent public space inside the Central Library.
Why the Library Is the Right Venue
Deferrari Hall isn’t a gallery — it’s a working library atrium used by visitors throughout the week as they come in to study, grab a book, or, this week especially, get out of the heat (cooling centers are open citywide through Saturday). Putting a piece like LEXICON there means it reaches people who’d never seek out a contemporary art or design show on their own.
BPL has been leaning into this kind of programming lately. Near the Boylston Street entrance, the library also recently opened the Tell-A-Booth, a pop-up phone booth installation created with Boston.com’s “Love Letters” advice column — a smaller, quirkier companion piece to LEXICON’s scale.
Go See It
LEXICON is free and open during all normal library hours at the Central Library, 700 Boylston Street, in Copley Square — easily reached via the Green Line’s Copley stop or the Orange Line’s Back Bay stop. It’s on view through November 1, so there’s no rush, but it’s worth building into a weekend downtown, especially paired with a stop at one of BPL’s free exhibitions or a cooling-center visit if the heat’s still on.