A pop-up book taller than a person and heavier than a grand piano has taken over the Rotunda of the Los Angeles Central Library, and it now holds an official Guinness World Record for its size. Titled Luceros y Penumbras, the artwork weighs more than 1,800 pounds and unfolds across two enormous spreads, with paper structures rising more than 11 feet into the historic downtown space.
Guinness World Records certified the piece on July 2 as the world's largest pop-up book, measuring 4.70 meters by 6.10 meters (15.41 feet by 20.01 feet) when folded and expanding to approximately 31 by 20 feet when fully opened, according to Guinness World Records. The record was awarded as part of the Central Library's centennial celebration, and the book is on view free to all ages, as reported by Time Out.
Getting the fully assembled book into the building was its own challenge. The finished artwork was too large to fit through the Central Library's physical doors, so engineers built it in smaller modular sections that were carried to the second floor and reassembled inside the historic Rotunda, per the City of Los Angeles. The process required industrial-strength cardboard inside the century-old landmark.
A Story Built From Boyle Heights and El Teúl
The book was created by Daniel González, a Los Angeles artist and printmaker who grew up in Boyle Heights. He drew inspiration from his teenage years spent reading at Central Library and from summer trips farming with his grandparents in El Teúl, Mexico, according to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. His past public works include the 2012 LA Metro commission Engraved in Memory at the La Cienega/Jefferson station, and LAPL's Special Collections department also holds a permanent portfolio of his original prints.
The book explores themes of memory, culture and discovery, transforming the library's historic interior into a storybook-like public art installation in downtown LA, per Time Out's reporting. It carries a bilingual inscription reading “Each person is a library” and includes a Tree of Wisdom spread with hidden figures — an owl, a sea turtle and a feathered serpent — representing local ecology and Indigenous mythology, according to freeyork.
Bringing González's design to record-breaking scale required specialized paper engineering. Matthew Reinhart, the renowned children's pop-up book author and paper engineer, designed the complex 3D structures for the project after relocating to Los Angeles in 2021 and building ties with the local book community, the Larchmont Chronicle reports. Reinhart collaborated with Los Angeles fabrication firm Goodnight & Co., which handled the full-scale engineering and fabrication needed to turn his structures into a functioning, 1,800-pound public artwork made of paper, adhesive and fabric.
Weekly Page Turns Require a Team Effort
Because the book is so massive, turning its pages is not a simple task. The installation features two giant spreads that are turned monthly for visitors, according to the Beverly Press & Park Labrea News. Luceros y Penumbras is on view at the Central Library through November.
The Richard J. Riordan Central Library now anchors LAPL's system. The Central Library turned 100 in July, and Los Angeles has marked the milestone with special events, exhibitions and programs throughout 2026, per Time Out.
Centennial Ties the Past to the Next 100 Years
Luceros y Penumbras was commissioned by the Central Library as the centerpiece of that centennial celebration, and it's displayed alongside the library's own Toy Movable Collection, a rare archive of more than 2,000 historic pop-up and interactive titles held by LAPL's Special Collections department, according to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. The pairing links the record-breaking new installation to Southern California's long-standing role in paper engineering history.
The centennial celebrations began in January, as Hoodline previously reported. LAPL's Central 100 celebrations have also included public events and programs.
Luceros y Penumbras is on view at the Central Library and remains free and open to all ages through mid-November.
