Books may be vessels into new worlds of excitement, but bookcases tend to be no more than utilitarian furniture designed with the sole purpose of holding our paged treasures when they aren’t being read. (Although, to be fair, they do also help insulate our homes.) They don’t have to be so dull though, as evidenced by the beautiful and fascinating bookshelves on this Women’s Day post.

The strikingly powerful pose depicted in the case above was designed by British artist Kazmierz Szmauz. Some of the other bookshelves might even be more design-savy, but when the odd angles make it impossible to actually house books, the piece tends to lose some of its functional purpose.