Old Books Reborn
February 7, 2015
Picture via Oddity Central
Bill Drendel, on the wonderful Book Arts Listserv, drew my attention to this great Ted Talk by artist Brian Dettmer, who digs into a good book (literally, with a knife) to create beautifully intricate forms that reflect how we see old information in a modern world. He mostly uses old dictionaries and encyclopaedias that have been superceded by the Internet. He has allowed them to quit their day-job and be reborn as art. Well worth six minutes of anyone’s time! Big thanks to Bill, and to Peter Verheyen of Syracuse University (New York, not Sicily) who maintains the Listserv.
Brian Dettmer’s website is here.
Photography allowed painting to quit its day-job.
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Dear Ama, Amazing! What an art form it is. I realise I am on the nursery slopes! I have also been distracted by “afterwards”. I have been given a huge basket of stripples – this is the waste after stripping the willow! It is not wasted but used as a compost on the withy beds. I have rolled and stitched some into circles. My next plan is to make paper using cut up stripples in pulp, if it works I will bring some to our next ABCD. It may be relevant for Bron’s SAW project. Thanks for the email Love Karen
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Karen – I don’t see how we can avoid dancing “Strip the Willow”! It will have to happen some time … we just need someone to volunteer to play a slip-jig for half an hour or so.