Watch: How would a bookshop look if only books by women were visible? The gender gap is alarming

A bookshelf can be an intimate physical representation of one’s reading interests, accomplishments, even. For International Women’s Day, a bookstore in Cleveland, Ohio used its shelves to dramatically showcase a huge gender gap in the publishing business.

Loganberry Books reversed the display of 10,000 books of general fiction and poetry written by male authors, displaying only the works of women with their spines or covers showing.

The process took two hours for an all-women staff. And the result was visually astonishing – shelves were whitewashed as shown in the video above.

The idea was also to commemorate Women’s History Month – an American project, going back to 1978, highlighting the crucial contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women’s Day on March 8.

“Pictures are loud communicators,” said Harriett Logan, the bookstore’s founder and owner. “So we are in essence not just highlighting the disparity but bringing more focus to the women’s books now, because they’re the only ones legible on the shelf.”