Competition win, 2004. Completion July, 2005.
Awarded by the Finnish Environmental Art Foundation, 2006.

Kalle Päätalo (1919-2000), was a much loved Finnish author whose books describe life in a remote part of north-eastern Finland, Koillismaa during his lifetime. Having refused in his will the making of a figurative monument of himself, the Päätalo Society approached the Department of Environmental Arts (TAIK), to organise a competiton for the design of a monument in Taivalkoski.

The winning proposal, Kirja (book) combines both symbological and more abstract levels as well as addressing the particular site chosen for the monument at the heart of Taivalkoski town centre. The monument consists of two parts: a 3m high book made out of 35mm thick cor-ten steel, set at one end of the central square (which is triangular in shape), and 13 "pages" forming an abstract landscape at the other edge of the square. Figures taken from historical photographs of people in the area are cut into the steel pages to symbolise the widespread popularity of the writer whose influence reaches across all parts of Finland.