Piles of Words: Book Art Work-in-Progress

What Draws Me to Alter a Book

 One version of my idea of a
 "gutted" book by Georgia Russell.

After looking into book art further I've decided I'm interested in exploring most are a few qualities: a surreal exploration of elements of the book's content, "gutting" the book by allowing the viewer to experience a whole swath's of  its content, or winnowing the book in an area to expose one element of it's content that reveals a new way of thinking about the book.  In this project I'm leaning towards a surreal experience for the viewer, though a bit of "gutting" is involved. 

"Life," by Jennifer Koshbin
My concept of a winnowed book.

The Process

What I have done so far is page through the book looking for words and phrases that jump out at me and then carefully cut them out. In the end I want those words to create disjointed combinations that hint at meaning but don't communicate it; I want it to be a fun confusion to the viewer like venturing with Alice Through the Looking Glass.

I'm in the obsessive phase of this project. I found myself a few days ago planning on just taking half an hour to go through a few pages cutting out words and in the end I spent a few hours absorbed in it and hunched over it. My shoulders were a bit sore afterwards. :P

The effect of cutting on the pages.
This likely will not be a visual element of the finished piece.

The words and phrases I carefully cut out of the pages of Introductory Metaphysics.
They have yet to find their final purpose.

"The Bride's Dowry," by Lisa Kokin
In my opinion this is a surreal
experience of the book's content.

Where am I Going?

I'm still not sure what the final result of this is going to be, but this piece for me is very much about finding ideas through the process of making something new as a reaction to something old. 

What I have decided is: I will incorporate painted elements (perhaps small creatures on the cover), that the end result will be a solid sculpture rather than an altered book that can still be flipped through, I will recombine words I've cut from the book to build a new idea or meaning that still incorporate's the book's original idea/ideas, and that layers of paper will be glued together and bursting through the cover so that the interior and exterior will be experienced simultaneously.

The Book's Lofty Subject

You may be asking what my interest is in metaphysics. My answer in this case is that I don't need to be absorbed in the subject to find meaning from this book. What drew me to the book were these elements: the book was free at a local library, it was full of vast ideas communicated in brief and dramatic phrases, it was full of words that are meant to be important and cause a reaction, and that the book had a pleasant air of age about it; so I could see myself absorbed in reacting to those words and that object for many hours.

The book, with such a meaning rich title to play with.

"Whole Piece #30"

"Whole Piece #30"
5" by 7"
Oils on Panel

Color

I usually attempt to "push" color. I attempt to paint color that is only hinted at in reality, or that expresses a mood I want to convey rather than "local color" absolutely from what I am seeing. I definitely did play with the color here, but more subtly. I wanted that blue iris to be the show stopper, so I kept all the colors in the skin vibrant but relatively subtle because they are related.

"Whole Piece #30"
Side View

Next

I'm hoping to meet someone with a flowing beard and include that beard in the Whole Piece Series. If their beard extends off their face I could focus on it as a feature in its own right. How curious that such a dominant visual communicator could be transient. A whim could erase a beard in just a few minutes. I'd like to explore that. If you know anybody with a grand beard send them my way (my email is: ambergoulet@yahoo.com).

Soon on the Periphery

Oh! And I'm in the mood to try some art experimenting. I made one piece of altered book art in the past and thoughts about delving into it more deeply have floated into my head occasionally since. I checked out a book called Art Made From Books: Altered, Sculpted, Carved, Transformed from the library recently and even procured a discarded out of date hardback to experiment with. There were other books I wanted to play with, books that still could be useful, but guilt crept in and kept me away. I was one of those bookish kids that treated a book as sacred, I could not make one mark within its covers. Over the years I've loosened up to the point of underlining lightly in pencil. Book lovers forgive my sacrilege. :P