Book Art

In honor of our December birthdays, my Dad recently brought me to a new - to me - art gallery space in Williamsburg, BK:

The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, on Broadway (in Brooklyn).  The gallery exists within the  Kings County Savings Bank building, built in 1867, which is beautiful but somewhat in need of a touch up.  The founder and curator is Yuko Nii, with whom I was able to speak briefly - as it turns out she is a graduate of Pratt as well, and was extremely gracious and interested in making a connection.

Ironically, the topic of the main gallery space was book art.  This tied in beautifully with my already piqued interest in that new realm of art/design.  In fact I'd posted about it in August and even in July.  The show, of course, pushed the boundaries far past the fairly utilitarian or vaguely decorative examples I'd discussed back then.  The works are intricate and complex, and certainly set my creative wheels in motion.  Perhaps over this winter break I will be able to explore this area a bit more aggressively. 

In the meantime, images from the collection:

These images are taken directly from the gallery's website ...

Plunderin' Books!

As I've mentioned, I have a new obsession with upcycling books -- and I've been ravaging my shelves for fresh victims.

On the carving block (literally) recently was a lovely blue hardcover I knew I'd never read again.
I decided to make my own story ... about sailing on the high seas.

And I used my sharpest knife to tell the tale.

I grabbed small sections of paper at a time, sketched the idea on their back, and carved away...

I liked the sculpted effect, but it still wasn't popping. So I figured it needed a bit of color.

I'm pleased with the blue, but it's still not finished ...

The next questions are: How on Earth am I gonna make a clean cut through that cover? And stick the pages together?

And possibly the hardest part: What the heck am I gonna do with this thing, anyway??

PS: If anyone out there in internet-land takes on this sort of thing, I'd recommend orienting it with the pages down, not up like I did ... then they'd hang down obediently, and I wouldn't be faced with the prospect of glueing (or stapling?) them up individually!

1,000 Uses For 1,000 Words

A recent discovery of this artistic recycling trend has me wishing I had some expendable books in my collection.

People do some pretty cool things with their old tomes, and my brain-wheels are turning now ...

'Book' bookshelves are popular, and some of my favorites. (above from Design Squish)
An iPod carrier (I don't know why you'd want an iPod carrier ... But you could put anything in there, really) Courtesy of Unplggd.com

Books can be planting pots Sculptures Even lighting fixtures (called 'Boeklampen')

Or cool bags! (top from tanyadennisbooks.com, bottom courtesy of OhMySoCute .com)

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It wasn't long before I was eyeing my trashiest paperbacks with malicious intent.

On the chopping block:

The one on the left was an emergency 'I ran out of books to read and have an 8 hour flight' airport grab. The other two were both found abandoned in classrooms at school; I was pretty excited about their covers, so I nabbed 'em.

Just to test the waters, I decided to give poor long-haired, silk-shirted Sebastian a little taste of my drill.

(insert maniacal evil laughter here)

He didn't like it.

But I DID.

Actually, it was really really really seriously fun (my Dad used to be a librarian ... I have a psychological conflict regarding proper book treatment).

Except I'd really been hoping for a cleaner cut. Still, the brain-wheels will keep turning. I think maybe I just need to take a saw to Sebastian.

(Insert ominous 'Dun, dun, duuuuuuunn' here)