Monday, March 30, 2009

The Four (elements) AB project.

Glued and folded pages from my book (above) and the other half of the double page spread (below) not yet glued. The spread is made up of 8 pages (4 each side) glued together to make 2 pages. The center (which is sort of diamond shaped) will have the letter by Chief Seattle written onto it. More to come on that later, the words are more than beautiful!I've been making progress on my book although it is now at a stage where most of the construction side has come to an end. I think. I am tempted to take it a step further and physically divide the book up into 8 segments (there are 8 artists playing including myself) who will work in the book repeating the four elements as we go.I have the book home for another few weeks before it starts its 7 month journey around NZ so I may yet give into the temptation!

This is the other side of the niche page (with the seeds in it) and it acts as the 'lid' for it. A sort of treasure chest if you think like I do!

Off the topic from my book but still on the topic of altered books I really want to encourage you all to go and look at the "Reversing Vandalism' exhibition that is permanently online (although previously at the San Fransisco Library.) The exhibition came about after staff discovered that books on Gay lifestyles, Aids/HIV, transgenderism and woman's issues were being systematically vandalised and left behind. Over 600 books were eventually discovered and they were the outward symptom of what was obviously a hate crime. The vandal was dealt with by the law but that left 600+ books destined for the rubbish pile. Thankfully this wasn't allowed and the library united with artists and the results are stunning, moving and impressive. Ironically the book that the vandal was finally caught with was called "Becoming Visible." Check it out here and here.

1 comment:

Irene said...

The altered book that you're working on is going to be a real beauty from what I can see of it now. I like seeing the process and I like what you are doing with the eight pages. It makes me very excited and I think I am just going to go ahead and alter a book myself and not wait for a group. It will be a good exercise and I will learn a lot in the process. If I run into any problems, I'll ask you for help. How about that?