Fuck Yeah, Book Arts!

yellowsquaredd asked: It kind of pains me to see all these books destroyed (eek dare I even say it?), but I'm so in love with 99% of the things you post that I guess it makes up for it. I don't know. I'm still feeling conflicted. But where do you find the things you post? And have you ever done any of this yourself?

Hi there! I’m indeed a book art student, but I’ve never made any altered book sculptures myself. I’ve actually been asked before on my opinions of the ”destruction” of books for art. My reply was:

“This is a valid question and a point of discussion between a lot of book artists. Hopefully from wandering through the blog, you will see that the medium of book art is by no means limited to the act of cutting up and altering beautiful books. In fact, quite a lot of the altered books featured here are made from recyclable material like out-of-date phone books, or damaged books found falling apart in charity shops. Often book sculptors make their art by folding the pages back into beautiful patterns, rather then cutting into them. I’ve also seen some artist’s make a point about the power of books- how the destruction or burning of them makes us feel so uneasy because of what they represent. 

I for one have not altered or cut-up any books (I just use recycled old paper/magazines/newsprint etc.) So I suppose it is something I’m not entirely comfortable with doing myself. But I can absolutely appreciate the skill and ideas behind the work of other book artists… This actually reminds me of a similar question I was asked not long ago here! x”

As for where I find everything, I just trawl through a lot of art-related tags in search, and if I like a blogger’s taste I will scour their archives looking for finds. I’m also just a bit of a researching geek and pour over endless art books, and like to keep an eye out for new ideas and artists. I also don’t sleep enough (night owl) so I tend to update the blog when I should be resting! I’m pretty much a zombie as a result, but I love running this blog so I don’t really have a choice (unless of course someone wants to pay me all the money so that running this becomes a full-time job??;) hehe didn’t think so!) x