This French Bookstore Turns Readers into Book Covers

Don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s how the old saying goes. And yes, this is true. But there’s still something wonderful about a truly great book cover – a piece of literary art we can hold in our hands.

The team at Bordeux bookstore, Librairie Mollat, understood this. Back in 2017, the store launched its Book Face series of photographs, in which staff members at the library posed with their favorite book covers and became one with their favorite literary works.

Eight years on, I’m looking back at this series and finding out what’s been going on at Librairie Mollat in the meantime.

The Book Face Photography Series

The story of Book Face actually begins ten years earlier, all the way back in 2007. UK DJ and record label owner Carl Morris thought it would be fun to take vinyl records and have his friends pose as the person featured on the front cover – usually, but not always, the album’s singer or creator. This morphed into the Sleeveface photography project, which spawned thousands of photos and three books.

Fast-forward to 2017, and the team at Librairie Mollat decided to do the same thing. Inspired by Sleeveface and by other projects like the one at Burlingame Public Library in California, they set out to create something of their own. They picked their favorite books off the shelves, and through a combination of clever perspective, similar clothing, and some smart styling choices, they melded their own faces with those on the book cover.

The result is a series of amusing, enchanting, and fascinating photos. While each work is a lot of fun, there’s also something quite profound about book lovers merging with the works that have inspired them.

Social Media Sensations

The Librairie Mollat’s team did not start the Book Face phenomenon, but they did provide plenty of creative and innovative examples of how the whole thing can work. After sharing their creations on social media, the team was inundated with likes, comments, shares, and a whole load of engagement from across Bordeaux, across France, and way, way beyond.

Plenty of other people got in on the act, too. Tens of thousands of people have shared their own creations publicly using the #BookfaceFriday hashtag, but even this is just scratching the surface. Plenty more have shared their own twist on the trend, without using the hashtag.

To this day, people are still releasing their own Book Face creations out into the world, and delighting book lovers around the globe with their work.

Librairie Mollat

Librairie Mollat was established in 1896 by bookseller Albert Mollat. Since then, successive generations of the Mollat family have overseen the bookstore. Today, Denis Mollat, the great-grandson of Albert, is the bookstore’s director.

Besides the bookstore, the company also runs a publishing house, known as Éditions Mollat. The publishers have produced a large number of different books, largely related to Bordeaux and its surrounding areas. Robert Coustet’s guide to the historical sites and monuments of the city, and Jean Damestoy’s history of Bordeaux from the 16th to the 18th Century, are two good examples of what Éditions Mollat publishes.

The bookstore also holds regular events and discussions, often dealing with extremely hard-hitting but undeniably important topics. In March 2025, the diplomatic advisor to former president François Mitterand, Hubert Védrine, discussed global geopolitical issues, such as the war in Ukraine. Later in the month, Manon Garcia discussed gender relations in the wake of the horrifying Pélicot Trial that rocked France in 2024.

Bookstores at the Heart of Local and Global Communities

Whether you are from Bordeaux and spend a lot of time at Librairie Mollat, or your local bookstore is somewhere completely different, there is something we can all agree on: businesses like this are pillars of their communities.

The Librairie Mollat demonstrates everything a bookstore can be. By offering books to local customers, it certainly serves its primary function, but its calendar of events and discussions also helps support other needs.

Meanwhile, projects like the Book Face series gave the business a platform to reach beyond the store’s physical boundaries, connecting with readers right across the world.

And of course, Librairie Mollat is only one example of this. Right across the world, in towns, cities, and villages, bookstores and booksellers are helping us all connect with life and literature in new and exciting ways. This is definitely something that needs to be celebrated.