The Written Word is Tom Van Sant’s public art treatment for three concrete facades of the Public Library. His concrete cast treatments are on exterior stairwell column facing Manchester; the lower level of an interior lobby; and an exterior wall of the Gladys Waddingham Lecture Hall.

Van Sant explores written expressions of numbers, letters, theories, and histories from global cultures including Egyptian hieroglyphics, Polynesian counting systems, European cave painting, and mathematical equations. The Written Word required special reversed concrete molds a technique requiring a high degree of craft. This poured-in-place concrete bas-relief is one of the largest in the world.

Tom Van Sant was a sculptor, painter and conceptual artist with sculpture and mural commissions for public spaces around the world. With skill and interest in architecture, planning, education, and advanced technical invention, he developed the original public art plan for Inglewood’s civic center campus.

Van Sant was a fellow with the MIT Institute for Advanced Visual Studies and founder of the GeoSphere Project environmental display system for Earth’s resource management. He has received numerous national awards for his work in art, architecture, astronomy, and kite making. A polymath with a BA from Stanford University and MFA from Otis College of Art and Design, Van Sant was born in 1931 and passed in 2023.

Date: 1972
Collection: City of Inglewood Permanent Public Art Projects
Medium: Bas-Relief Public Art Treatment
Material: Poured-in-place concrete
Size: Architectural scale in three sites

Location:
Inglewood Public Library
101 West Manchester Boulevard
Inglewood, California 90301

Tom Van Sant on The Written Word