The new Vienna Central Library, erected between 1999 and 2002 at Urban-Loritz-Platz, quickly became an urban anchor drawing all facets of the population. Immediately following the opening of the new library admisistration (together with the Cultural Departement of the City of Vienna) formulated ideas for the creation of an on-site project. The Public Art Vienna advisory board seized upon this idea and suggested inviting Heinz Gappmayr.

Beginning in the late 1950s Heinz Gappmayr was concerned with language as art object. He was particularly interested in the divergence and interrelation between word, concept and concrete object of perception. In his art, thought processes are made visible through lettering. Early on Gappmayr was concentrating on certain terms that approximated the conceptual approach of his work. Term which count among the constants of his work include "Zeit" (time) and "Raum" (space), ontological words like "ist" (is), "sind" (are), "wird" (will), ut also numerical words or color designations.

In selecting spatial texts for the Vienna Central Library, Heinz Gappmayr was particularly focused on the relationship between architecture and language. Libraries are spaces of language. Books are manifestations of thoughts. This complex relationship between the content of the library and its architecture formed the point of origin for the artistic concept.
Making an appearance along the west and east facades of the library is the term ECHO. In a subtle way this term embraces the poetic meaning of reverberation while implying a particular spatial situation. Gappmayr positioned the term on both exterior facades, here tying into a traffic-specific situation since the cars to each side of the library drive in one direction only. Moreover, the word affixed to the facade appears in reading direction, from left to right, and continues in a mirrored aspect following the fulcrum O.
In the inside of the library, to the left and right side of the main entrance, the following words can be read upon two ten-meter-high walls: "sirius", "beteigeuze", "rigel", "aldebaran", "procyon", "argol". The viewser is confronted with strange terms sounding somewhat archaic. The words shimmer in light, brushed aluminium. They look as if they were messages form alien worlds.
The third spacial text, consisting of the term "ZEIT" (time), is located at the front side of the main entrance toward the subway station directly beneath the library. The letter fragments stretch across three lines along the wall. The fragmentation of the term lends emphasis to the symbolic character of the language. The letters themselves are space-consuming and draw the term into that which is purely imagined or thought.

Text extract: Gaby Gappmayr, in: Public Art Vienna. Departures - Works - Interventions. 2004 - 2007.