For publishers like Barnes & Noble and Italy's Feltrinelli, things looked horrible in the mid-2000s. The Kindle came out in 2007, making e-books available to the masses. For the next five years, print book sales took a nosedive. Publishers panicked. Independent bookstores went under. To survive, Barnes & Noble and Feltrinelli began hawking coffee, DVDs, and even toys and vinyl records in their retail outlets.

Millennials and Gen-Z to the rescue. To everyone's surprise these generations, though raised on screens, actually preferred the tactility of print books. They also shared their book passions through social media. By 2015, print book sales were climbing out of their sales hole.

Then came the pandemic in 2020, and demand for print books exploded. Next BookTok became a phenomenon, further driving demand. Today print book sales dominate e-book sales at a ration of 4:1, with revenue at $64 billion and $13 billion, respectively.

Now Feltrinelli, firmly back in the black, is making a book-centric splash at the Salone. The company commissioned British artist/designer Es Devlin to create "Library of Light," a kinetic installation at Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera art museum.

Occupying the museum's Cortile d'Onore (the main courtyard), Devlin's installation is a sweeping cylinder of illuminated bookshelves, housing over 3,000 books on themes of "Thought for Humans" donated by Feltrinelli.

The entire installation rotates, reflecting sunlight during the day and casting light and shadows around the courtyard at night.

Visitors are free to browse the books, and every evening at 8pm readings from selected texts are piped into the courtyard, voiced by Devlin and actor Benedict Cumberbatch; for those hard of hearing, the readings are accompanied by an LED display providing closed captions.

The tick marks atop the perimeter of the shelving are Devlin's nod to the Umberto Eco quote "Books are the compass of the mind."

Said Es Devlin of the project:

"I have always experienced libraries as silently intensely vibrant places where minds and imaginations soar, while clutched like kites by their seated bodies. This kinetic sculpture reflects the synaptic connections being forged, the resonances and associations at play within the minds of a temporary community of readers. As Jorge Luis Borges said, "I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all that I have loved; all the cities I have visited."

After the Salone closes, the books will be donated to Milan's library system.