There's a wealth of public art in the Twin Cities, from the over-exposed (that Spoon, those Snoopys) to the under-appreciated. This week, we celebrate nine works in Saint Paul that impress us with their sheer beauty, their offbeat appeal, or some combination of the two. (Look for our Minneapolis public-art picks in the October 5 issue of The Line.)

An indispensable resource for public-art spotters is Scene From the Sidewalk: A Guide to Public Art in the Twin Cities, by Glenn Keitel (Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications, 2010), which manages to highlight a very high percentage of the public work in our towns, concentrating on sculpture, as does our selection here. Another good guide is Kevin D. Hendricks' blog Start Seeing Art.

If you want to visit the artwork:

Venus on the Road: Front of Visual Arts Building, St. Catherine University, Randolph Avenue between Howell Street and Prior Avenue
Spirit of Peace: City Hall Lobby: 15 West Kellogg Boulevard
Infinite Library: Metropolitan State University Library, 645 East 7th Street
Max Rabbitat and Muscle: Western Sculpture Park, Marion Avenue between I-94 and University Avenue
Meditation: West shore of Lake Phalen, north of the Picnic Pavilion
Fence, Minnesota Women Suffrage Memorial Garden: Capitol Mall, northeast corner of Cedar Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard
New York Life Eagle: Summit Lookout, Summit Avenue and Ramsey Street
Red Alert: University Avenue west of Fairview Avenue