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Visual Bits#407> Camping Gear & Other Environmental Consumption
Between: Beautifully Braided Books
We’ve seen amazing book carvings by Emma Taylor, Kylie Stillman, Frank Halmans, and Guy Laramee but now comes a series of book art that’s only temporary: book braiding. Math Monahan braids the pages of a book, similar to the way a french braid is done, adding a few more pages to each group as it gets folded into the braid. The result is an awesomely clean looking design that unfolds itself over time. One of his circular installations is in the Penny Stamps Graduate Studio and the other in the Hatcher Graduate library of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he is currently working toward a Master of Fine Arts. Ironically the one in the library unbraided more, which Math hypothesizes is so that the books could be closer to the other books surrounding them! [Read more...]
A House of Books: Architecturally Carved Literature
For some people, a good book is like coming home. It’s a cozy thing to curl up with and call it a day, and a place to find quite guidance. Dutch artist Frank Halmans creates book based sculptures which look a lot like city based row houses – cutting windows through their pages and stacking them together into narrow architectural forms. He creates the works as a metaphor – one which plays on the idea of moving through things, whether that be a literary passage or a physical expanse. [Read more...]
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Fictitious Dishes: Food From Famous Literature
Most fiction stories have some form of main character, a protagonist to remember long after the last page. Then there are stories where another type of character remains in our minds, reminding us like a small hunger of the story which came before: that character is food. From the famous porridge in Oliver Twist’s bowl to the cheese sandwich on toast with a chocolate milkshake from Catcher in the Rye, certain meals stand out while lending meaning and insight into those omnipresent and hungry protagonists. [Read more...]
Crystals Growing From the Pages of Books
What can you do with your old paperback books now that you have the digital version on your Nook? Turn them into art of course. Installation artist and sculptor Alexis Arnold has transformed some of her old books and magazines into gorgeous geological masterpieces. By saturating boiling hot water with borax detergent powder and immersing the books into the solution, crystals grow and harden to preserve the books in whatever shape she chooses. The sparkling mineral crystals upon the colorful pages of magazines look like geological gems from another planet. [Read more...]
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Etching Like Illustrations Draw on Literature
When it comes to telling a story through illustration, few come closer to perfection than Douglas Smith. His intensely detailed work has the quality of being at once, beautiful to look at, technically impressive and thematically intriguing… hidden in its fine line work are stories both new and old. [Read more...]
More Mountains of Books: New Work by Guy Laramee
When I first ran across the work of Guy Laramee, I was completely floored. This fellow really knows how to do some inspired book carving, taking discarded unloved books like old encyclopedias or dictionaries and transforming them into meditative landscapes. While plenty controversial with the book lovers out there, most people can still see the beauty and exceptional creativity involved in these sculptural masterpieces. [Read more...]
Love Fiction? New Weekly Reading from Electric Lit!
Sometimes the very best thing in this fast age of distraction, is to sit down with a good cup of coffee and an equally good read. Slowing down with some inspiring fiction is one of the great pleasures of life and one that, through the magic of story and prose, can lead us to deep revelations about ourselves and the world. Now, new media publisher Electric Literature has created an exciting new series for all lovers of the written word… and it’s coming to you free on your iPad, iPhone or eBook reader!
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Got Old Phonebooks? Make Art Out Of Them!
Texas based photographer Cara Barer uses old phone books, computer manuals, maps, and comic books to create hypnotic sculptures, which she then photographs. Her inspiration came when she saw a rain-soaked Yellow Pages lying on the ground. She photographed its intricately bent pages and soon began the search for more books, and more methods to change their appearance. She realized she owned many books that were no longer of use to her or to anyone else. She soaked the manual for Windows 95 in the bathtub for a few hours, then gave it a new shape and purpose. Half Price Books became a regular haunt, and once an abandoned house gave her a set of outdated reference books, complete with mold and a storied history of neglect. [Read more...]
Beer Craft: A Graphical Explanation of Home Brewing
There’s not much in life better than drinking a cold, sudsy bottle of beer crafted by yourself. Brewing beer isn’t rocket science, but that’s not what you’d think when looking at most beer brewing books. They’re filled with calculations, charts and chapter upon chapter about the subtleties of crafting the perfect brew. While this may be handy for the seasoned home brewer, it is far more complex than the beginning, or even average, home brewer needs to create a good beer of their own. This gorgeous and useful new book, Beer Craft, explores the basics to the intermediate steps involved in the craft, all visualized using a heavy graphical style that makes the whole process go down smoothly. [Read more...]
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