“WARNING: This post may not be for the faint of heart! If you are anything like me, and I know that many of you are (May God have mercy on your souls), the merest willful damage to a book is tantamount to abuse. I have never quite gotten over my childhood habit of anthropomorphizing objects. While my talk of trees and books and the various Objet d’art that inhabit my world and the relationship I have with them is more poetic license than waking delusion, there is still a very small part of that young lad who assumes that books, like people, have feelings too. Thus today’s Book Week post features art that is something of an enigma for me: I admire the work and am inspired by the creativity and at the same time I feel pangs of guilt over my attachment to each piece.
Today rather than spending a tremendous amount of time discussing each image, I am going to briefly showcase the artist and then allow you to enjoy their work. Though it may be incongruous with the images, to keep the mood light (after all, I don’t want my Book Week posts making anyone cry) I will include various inspiring/funny quotes about books or reading between photos.”
(via Stainless Steel Droppings. H/T: Endicott Blog)
May 1, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I suppose, for me, it depends on the book. For some books, each copy damaged or lost is a tragedy, for others, becoming a sculpture is a far, far better thing. My favorite piece of bookart is by Tom Phillips, who took a Victorian realist novel called “A Human Document” and painted/collage every page to produce “A Humument” (www.humument.com).
May 1, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Thanks for the link, Bill. Beautiful work.