Workers 'C' red over word-play at library

Now, thanks to a £5,000 arts initiative, the British Library has something new to shout about - but be warned: don't shout it too loudly.

The new acquisition? A glowing pink neon sign that says: "Has anybody seen Mike Hunt?"

The artwork is part of an exhibition called 26 Letters: Illuminating The Alphabet, which has been on display at the £511million library since last month.

Teams of typographic designers and business writers were asked to create a work based on the alphabet. This one - of course - is dedicated to the letter C.

Some British Library staff, already up in arms at the threat of redundancies, are outraged that £5,000 of library funds was used to mount the exhibits, which mark this year's London Design Festival.

One dismissed the sign as "adolescent". Another said: "Why are they spending money on installing this in the British Library? It is ridiculous and offensive."

The library clearly expected criticism: it has issued staff with a list of possible responses to any visitors who feel that the sign is a play on words too far.

One says: "Some posters may be perceived as controversial ... We accept that not everyone will like the results but the posters demonstrate how powerful language and letters are and how much they affect us all."

The memo adds: "We have not put any constraints on how the creative pairs have chosen to interpret their letters ... We do not believe the exhibition should cause offence."

It also makes clear that school parties will be kept away from this particular learning experience. The sign's cocreators are Morag Myerscough and Charlotte Rawlins. In her artist's statement Ms Rawlins explains their inspiration: "I arrived to find the wall of Morag's studio papered with variations on the theme of the word c***. We had various puns ranging from 'C U next Tuesday' to 'Has anybody seen Mike Hunt?'.

"And there it was - the pieces fell into place. C, after all, is almost unique in having its own word. The C word. The hardest word of them all. In fact, there's only one other letter that has its own word and that's F... but no one is that scared of using the F-word these days."

She added: "The use of the pun will, we hope, avoid offending the gentler sensibilities of the British Library reader.

"Our aim isn't to shock, it's just to have a bit of fun with our letter and say that we don't think the C-word is such a bad word after all."