Altered Books
Altered books are old books which are upcycled to create new objects, to show a new meaning to the book they are created from. First rule of altering a book, look it up on abebooks to make sure your not about to destroy a value book!
Worship
This was my second experiment with altered books. I got the book for free from a second hand bookshop which had closed down. I didn't read book, it looked a bit boring, but there seemed an obvious metaphor to me.
Gravity
My first experiment with altered books. Maybe a bit obvious, but still quite tricky to cut. PVA at the ready.
School Mathematics
Made from one of my dad's old school books found while clearing my grandparents house.
The Origin of The Earth
Those old Pelican Books lend themselves so well to altering. The first time I've also used paint in an altered book. I kind of like it.
It's All an Act
To be fair, in researching this I didn't actually read The Imitation of Christ, but from the blur on Wikipedia I understand it is all about how to live your life like Jesus. Imitation seems like a strange word, almost just pretending, as a lot of people do. The two faces are of course the symbol for the theatre or acting.
Magnetic Fields
This is an old book on electromagnetism. Everyone remembers at school putting a magnet underneath a sheet of paper and sprinkling iron files on to. You get a similar pattern to this. Trying to sculpt books in a slightly different way.
Sweden 1963
My parents and I love going to charity shops when in Sweden. At one I found a shelf full of Swedish Year Books from the 50s up to the 80s. Full of pictures they're ripe for a bit of cutting. This is the 1963 year book.
The D.A. Breaks an Egg
Sometimes the title of a book is all the inspiration you need. Again, a book I've not read, because to be honest it looked awful, but with a lot of PVA glue and a few scalpel blades is now on proud display in my home.
Mr Norris Changes Trains
Christopher Isherwood is probably best known for A Single Man, but he wrote many more stories. The Mr Norris character in this one is on the run from the authorities. Is he a spy, or isn't he? The people in this work are cut from various old children's annuals that I've collected over the years, mainly from the 50s and 60s, so not quite 1935 when this novel was written.
Sons of God
Sons of God is a book by an author I had not previously heard about. It is set during those good old colonial days, and what better represents the colonies than the pith hat. And of course every gentleman of that ear would have a luxurious moustache and wear a monocle. Somethings just write themselves.
Five Children and It
I remember watching the early 1991 BBC adaptation of Five Children and It, an iconic children's story - apparently. Everyone of my generation or younger has been terrorised by the 1990 TV miniseries of Stephen King's It. A new adaptation of the latter has just come out - I don't think it adds to the original. These two stories, so different, yet produced a year apart are the perfect pairing.
