Gentleman and ladies,

I'm planning on building a large USA map bookshelf to be the focal point of a large wall in our home. I've found two versions online, which you can see at the following links. I'm inclined to fashion mine more like the first one below on Dwell.com, which only has the shelves coming out on the lower parts of the state borders, rather than the whole state being outlined, but I'm not set on this yet. My question is, I want to build this with fine plywood and leave the edge exposed (not wanting any edge banding). We have an Eames lounge and coffee table, so lots of formed plywood. Any recommendations on a type of plywood that would cut well, leaving clean edges, and look good with just a sealer, no stain? I looked at cabinet grade plywood at HD, but it didn't look like great quality. I'm thinking some hardwood sheeting, 7-10 ply? Any other thoughts or ideas about this project would be appreciated. Here are the links:

http://www.dwell.com/finishing-touch...okshelf-london

http://freshome.com/2009/04/06/books...es-of-america/

an-american-bookshelf-in-london.jpg