One of the windows of the Cambridge University Press bookshop is currently staging a display of beautiful creations by book sculptor and paper artist Justin Rowe. Based on the traditional carol, the collection consists of a work for each of the twelve days of Christmas. From the interiors of books, Rowe brings forth delicate, intimate scenes in paper, of dancing ladies, drumming drummers, and milking maids. On close inspection, some of the scenes have an unsettling, dark element too – why are the ten lords leaping off a bibliographical cliff? I particularly like his use of gold leaf, one of the traditional materials for book ornamentation, which both reinforces the material origins of his creations as books, and transforms them into something else. You can see photographs of these and other works on Rowe’s own website.

‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ are being raffled for Romsey Mill, a Cambridge charity, and tickets are for sale inside the CUP shop.