LA's new record holder: a pop-up book you can practically walk into
Guinness World Records has named "Luceros y Penumbras" the largest pop-up book ever built — a 31-foot, 1,800-pound installation at LA's Central Library. See how artist Daniel González and paper engineer Matthew Reinhart brought it to life, on view through November 2026.
LIFE
7/18/20261 min read
LOS ANGELES, CA - Los Angeles just gave the phrase "page-turner" a new scale. On July 2, Luceros y Penumbras was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's largest pop-up book — 31 feet wide, more than 11 feet tall, and roughly 1,800 pounds. It's on display in the Rotunda of the Richard J. Riordan Central Library through mid-November 2026, built to mark the Los Angeles Public Library's 100th anniversary.
The book is a collaboration between the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Public Library, artist Daniel González, and paper engineer Matthew Reinhart. González drew on his family history and childhood trips to the library to shape a story about memory, identity, and belonging; Reinhart built the paper mechanisms that turn those ideas into something that physically unfolds.
Two spreads make up the book, and each is turned once a week. The first shows the Central Library's south façade rising under a star-filled sky, an image González traces back to bedtime stories his grandmother told him. Look closely and the spread holds smaller references to the library's history and to González's own path there, down to his first library card.
The second spread centers on a towering Tree of Wisdom, framed by the skylines of downtown Los Angeles and El Teúl, Mexico. Owls, snakes, coyotes, and Quetzalcoatl appear throughout, tying Indigenous mythology to the library's own story and González's roots.
Alongside the installation, the library has pulled selections from its Toy Movable Collection — more than 2,000 pop-up and interactive books rarely put on public display. Family story sessions and paper engineering workshops are running alongside the exhibition.
Pop-up books have always relied on clever folds to surprise a reader. Luceros y Penumbras just built that trick at architectural scale, turning a page into something closer to a stage cue than a flip of paper.
Image: Los Angeles Public Library