I have always had a fascination with books and bookmaking… When new text books were handed out in school (back in THOSE days), I would carefully ‘crack’ the spine of the book, slowly open it, and smell the ink and the new pages. While in middle school, a friend’s grandfather was a master bookbinder from Japan and taught me the art of book binding techniques – and I was hooked. Through high school, I created my own books that I used as journals and experimented with different materials to use for bookmaking.
Fast forward to college and life as a struggling art student looking for ways to be creative without having to spend money. I would go to thrift stores and library sales to purchase old, oversized discarded books. Once back at my studio, I would cover the pages with white gesso to use these as my art books for sketches and experimentation. Curiosity and a bit of boredom naturally led me into the realm of book reconstruction – taking these previously discarded books and altering and manipulating the book form into new forms of art. Some people cringe and think of this as book deconstruction, but I have always felt that I was transforming those pages found between the covers into a work of art that every book should be.
Here are just a few examples of book projects that I have created, some linking to project pages with full tutorials and detailed pictures and instructions about their construction.
