Dry Bark Book by Stephanie Frederick

phoebe-bird:

Something long forgotten. 

A tiny book, bound with love on a sunny summer afternoon three years ago. Sent back and fourth from California to Rhode Island, between my ex-boyfriend and I.

I don’t know what made me think of it today. 

souzyandherbooks asked: Hey, do you have a page on facebook ?

Yes I do! :)

I created it to showcase some of my favorite book art pieces, as well as to create a space anyone could share their own book art, especially since I receive an overwhelming amount of submissions here on tumblr (and unfortunately, I simply don’t have enough spare time to go through it all sometimes).

With the facebook page, I encourage anyone to share their work, exhibitions or book art-related events instantly with other book art fans! x

nevver:

Tête-à-tête

Wooden Piano Journal With Music Sheet Inserts (and a Violin Key as a Lock)  by Tanja Sova

Anonymous asked: i've been following for a while now and i just have to confess that, as much as i enjoy and am inspired & awed by the art you share, the pieces that have repurposed old books in particular make me incredibly uncomfortable sometimes. it's weird to both enjoy the pleasurable visual aspect of something while also feeling uneasy with it. thanks

Hi there! Altered books are indeed a contentious artform, and you might be interested in reading previous discussions I’ve had about them here. 

I will admit, I too was once uncomfortable with altered bookworks/sculptures when I first came across them, under the umbrella term of ‘Book Arts’. But then again, I’ve found most bibliophiles like myself have a tendency to overly fetishize the book, and it’s important to recognize and question this inclination within ourselves.

The reality of the matter, however, is that these days most developed countries/societies are privileged enough to contain a superabundance of books of all genres, and of a variety of arguably questionable value.

For instance: 50 Shades of Grey, the fastest selling paperback of all time, is seen by many as a harmless form of escapism; a commodity and a vessel of entertainment, but how important is it to you really as an object of beauty to collect and proudly display on your bookshelf? As a physical object, how does it compare to an old hardback Jane Austen novel or a collection of Oscar Wilde’s poetry? Are these books largely seen as more valuable because of their content, historical significance, or because books of previous decades were made with higher quality paper + artful binding, unlike today’s cheaply produced paperback? 

For me, I think the value of the book lies with the individual reader- and there will always be someone out there who will cherish even the most obscure of titles. As a result, it’s hard to judge which books are therefore “sacred” and which are superfluous, and allowed under the artist’s knife…

However, you just need to visit your local secondhand bookshop to see hundreds of volumes sitting there, quite literally homeless and decomposing. A great deal of altered book artist’s source their books from these bargain bins, or even salvage books which were due to be pulped anyhow. In these instances, the artists could be viewed as granting these objects a new lease of life, upcycling them into objects of beauty. 

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents on the matter! Thanks for sharing your thoughts :) x

mathmonahan:

Book braiding installation for my first critique tonight. 

keicai:

Book is officially done!

(via palimpsesti)

Giant Sculptural Books in Berlin

(Source: unicorn-meat-is-too-mainstream)

unhistorical:

September 21, 1937: The Hobbit is published.

J.R.R.Tolkien’s classic children’s novel turns 75 years old today. The book begins with the line “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit”, a sentence which, according to Tolkien, came to him spontaneously while marking papers. The first edition dust jacket was designed by the author himself, who also provided the black and white illustrations. Since 1937, The Hobbit has been translated into over forty languages and sold tens of millions of copies. The initial print of 1,500 copies ran out in three months, and response was unanimously favorable. Tolkien’s close friend and fellow fantasy author C.S. Lewis wrote in The Times Literary Supplement: ”Prediction is dangerous: but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.”

Perhaps The Hobbit’s greatest legacy was not the book itself but the sequel that was published seventeen years later - the far more complex first volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring. Urged on by his publishers, who wished to make the most out of the smashing success that was The Hobbit, Tolkien worked on his sequel slowly and deliberately through the years of World War II and after. Both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings brought the popularity of fantasy literature to new heights and established Tolkien as the “father” of modern high fantasy.