We studied electro‐optical properties of 5–13‐&mgr;m‐thick films of a short pitch (0.43 &mgr;m) chiral smectic C liquid crystal in bookshelf structure. The anchoring at the silane treated surfaces was relatively weak so that the relaxed bookshelf structure was helical also at the surfaces. Low fields cause only a deformation of the helix. Larger fields unwind the helix and give a quasibistable switching since the helix recovers at zero fields only slowly via a nucleation process. There is an intermediate field range where the sample is in a mixed state: In some areas the helical structure remains stable, while in other areas switching occurs between two unwound states. In the intermediate field range bistable switching with a gray scale is possible. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.