Art Made from Carved Books

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Everyone, you really need to check this out (http://karanarora.posterous.com/insane-art-formed-by-carving-books-with-surgi).

P.S. A more accurate title for the thread would be "Carved Books as Art." I hate that I can't change it.

[iamnobody]

That is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[RaraAvis]

His work is enchantingly beautiful, of course, but I'm also quite amazed at how this guy seems to have boundless patience. It clearly took a very long while to carve out such intricate details on each single book.
Thanks for sharing.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I know. I'd love to know how many hours go into one, and also how much one of them costs. I wouldn't be surprised if they're in five-figure territory.

[Lokasenna]

Agreed. This must have been painstaking, careful, talented work. I don't really like seeing books cut up, as a general rule, but these are very beautiful.

[stlukesguild]

There's an entire field in the visual arts known as the "Book Arts". The term can refer to beautiful printed books, livre d'artiste (or artist's books), immaculately bound books, or collage and assemblage (sculpture) made from books. The entire field really took off in the 1970s when the feminist movement pushed for a reconsideration of various "crafts" that had not been taken seriously as a medium worthy of recognition as "fine art".

There are any number of artists working in a similar or related manner utilizing books:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7048/6924418209_f98314de18.jpg
-Qasim Sabti

Qasim Sabti created a large suite of collages suggestive of Mark Rothko's abstract paintings constructed of the remains of books Sabti salvaged from the looted and burned Library of Baghdad following the American military taking control of the city. The Library and the Museum (among other cultural sites) were pillaged as the Iraqi forces withdrew and the American forces were concentrated upon preserving the oil wells, pipelines, etc... The US forces had been warned of the likely loss to precious cultural sites (among the oldest in the world) by museum directors and cultural figures from across the globe, but one can never accuse George Bush of caring the least for arts and culture.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7053/6924418255_cccd5c6dcb_z.jpg
-Janet Jones

-I knew Janet Jones through online discussions at various art sites devoted to collage. We were both members of the National Collage Society, and at one point she credited my efforts with inspiring her elegant, minimalist collage... although she is certainly far freer that I in her approach.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7045/6778301876_2f82a28a6e_z.jpg
-Hubertus Gojowczyk

The Polish artist, Hubertus Gojowczyk clearly falls within the Surrealist tradition of strange and magical objects.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7069/6778301952_6c7e71340e.jpg
-Cecil Touchon

Cecil Touchon, an American living in Mexico City, is a leader in the field of collage, running web-sites devoted to the art form and a museum. His works employ graphics culled from books, magazines, and posters. In this particular instance a pile of Touchon's papers became damp and moldy. rather than throwing these away, he employed them in creating a body of collage that suggests the weathered surfaces of ancient stucco walls.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7066/6924418373_27574be69e.jpg
-Emilio Lobato

A Denver-based artist enamored of old books, Lobato paints upon pages culled from antique dictionaries, encyclopedias, and medical texts:

http://www.artbusiness.com/1open/images/0903083.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7058/6778302010_f17e634026_z.jpg

http://newpainters.com/spinks_remains_to_be_seen/full_screen/Home.jpg
-John Spinks

Born in Northern Britain, Spinks spent some 25 years living in the US during which time he and his father wrote to each other almost every day. Spinks developed an abiding love of writing, text, letters, words, etc... and created a body of collage built upon old papers, books, letters, etc...

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7209/6778302056_c1ebe4d9d9.jpg
-Ronald Chase

Chase created a wealth of art works in a variety of non-traditional forms: collage, assemblage, installation, video, etc... I have long been enamored of his "book of hours".

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6778302070_6c852bab65.jpg
-Lisa Kokin

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7195/6924418483_4afd6a4e73.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7204/6924418501_cede9a53df.jpg
-Georgia Russell

-A couple lovely pieces by contemporary women artists.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7182/6924418521_424016fdb9.jpg
-Yet another book sculpture in the Surrealist tradition.

For some 5 years after loosing access to my large painting studio, I worked at home... in the shadow of my personal library... creating my own book-based collages:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7177/6924424021_c964fc9096_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6924424039_f3afd6bd90_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7068/6778307694_b6050c6006_z.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7181/6924424057_35f869d790_z.jpg

Brian Dettmer's works are surely some of the finest that I have seen within the "book arts" tradition.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I have seen a few book artists and some local art fairs. One in particular was pretty neat, and also a woman. She aaa actually similar to Dettmer in that she carved her books (actually, she used leather-bound journals diaries), but she sort of carved windows into the cover and would maybe paint something. It wasn't intricate like Dettmer at all. His stuff is some of the most amazing I've seen in any genre. Plus, it's actually visually appealing rather than just technically amazing.

[MystyrMystyry]

It's a weird crossover form where the aesthetics of detail can be appreciated readily, and the nuttiness of the perps only later. It's sort of like high French polishing where the furniture is simply too delicate for anything but display in a gallery.

It reminds me of an exhibition the main library held a few years back - the original illustrations and sketches by famous authors: Lewis Carrol's, Mervyn Peak's, Kenneth Grahame's and Tolkein's (amongst many others) actual drawings and cover designs, but which weren't regarded as 'Art' because apart from Peak wasn't what they were known for (meant the insurance was extremely inexpensive too - no-one bothered about it!)

I once hand-coloured a black and white Phantom comic with fluro highlighters, and it became the focal point of an exhibition (it's not really a comparable feat though)

[YesNo]

This book art reminded me of Dalton Getty's pencil carvings:

http://themodernartist.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/pencil-carving-art-by-dalton-getty/

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Wow, that's amazing. I think the difference, for me, is that, unlike the books, they just aren't that aesthetically pleasing. They look neat, and the patience and technical skill must be through the roof to get those done, but I think that's probably their main, if not only, selling point.

Can you imagine buying one of those (I'm sure they're insnanelt expensive) and dropping it? Or him being almost done carving one and getting a twitch and breaking it? It's had to have happened before.

[qimissung]

Wowzers. Those are beautiful, Mutatis. And thank you, too, Stlukes, for expanding on the theme.