Book Sculptures

I am torn on this one. And so are these books.

On the one hand, the bibliophile in me is sad to see a perfectly good book desecrated and made impossible to read again.

On the other hand, these are clearly works of art.

I love the idea of using old media to create something new and beautiful. Just because something has become outdated and seemingly useless doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. It just takes a little ingenuity to put new life into something old.

These sculptures are amazing. They are by an artist named Brian Dettmer. He takes these out of date encyclopedias, medical journals, illustration books, or dictionaries and bends, folds, stacks and manipulates them to make new works of art. Nothing is transferred or rearranged, only removed. He carefully and painstakingly cuts away at book to form his unique sculptures.

Brian Dettmer isn’t the only person to use this old media to create something new. Alex Queral uses old phone books to carve portraits of people. Old media made new!

And then there is Isaac Salazar and book origami. No cutting or pasting for this guy. All he does is carefully fold the pages of books to create something remarkable.

I could not love these more even if I wanted to. Check out these artists respective websites for more outstanding works of art.