Book Bird
Obama Presidential Center, Library Reading Garden
Obama Presidential Center, Library Reading Garden, Chicago
Obama Presidential Center, Library Reading Garden, Chicago
Richard Hunt with UNCF Book Bird award
Obama Presidential Center, Library Reading Garden, Chicago
© 2026 The Richard Hunt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. © The Obama Foundation, Photos: Taylor Glascock and Lawrence Agyei
Richard Hunt’s Book Bird (2023) stands as a testament to the emancipatory power of knowledge. Selected by President Barack Obama as the first artist commissioned for the Obama Presidential Center (OPC) on Chicago’s South Side, Hunt considered the opportunity to be a tremendous privilege, proclaiming he was both delighted and deeply honored to be chosen for this historic project. Hunt was further inspired by the significance of creating a work for a presidential library honoring the first African American president right in his hometown of Chicago.
Book Bird gracefully captures a moment of metamorphosis: an avian form breaking the bonds of gravity, rising triumphantly from the open pages of a book. Its genesis lies in a 1985 cast-bronze award that Hunt originally created for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to honor philanthropic champions of higher education. Notable recipients of the UNCF award are President George H.W. Bush; Dr. Michael L. Lomax, former UNCF President and CEO; John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of the Johnson Publishing Company and Ebony/Jet magazines; and Richard M. Daley, former mayor of Chicago.
Hunt’s homage to education and freedom anchors the center's Library Reading Garden at a branch of the Chicago Public Library–the first public library ever housed within a presidential center. The placement of the sculpture is particularly poignant. Richard Hunt grew up reading art, science, and literature books at the main branch of the Chicago Public Library (now the Chicago Cultural Center), where his mother, Etoria Inez Henderson Hunt, was one of the city's first Black female librarians.
Book Bird stands as an invitation to the community, challenging all who walk beneath its wings to embrace the liberating currents of learning and imagination. Created as one of the last monuments prior to his passing, Hunt observed that Book Bird encapsulates the "progress one can make through reading and study. This 'Book Bird' helps you to take wing yourself."
Discover Book Bird on our Bloomberg Connects South Side Public Art Tour
Press Release: "Richard Hunt's Book Bird to be Unveiled at the Obama Presidential Center"
Obama Presidential Center: "Richard Hunt: Inspiring us all to take flight"