When it comes to books, there seem to be two types of people: those who would "destroy" one to repurpose it, and those who consider destruction of a book sacrilegious. For the former, there have been some posts here on Apartment Therapy of interest: creating a mail holder from a book, and an entire counter from books here. We've picked out some other amazing and inspiring ideas that get our imaginations going.
Inspiration: Books as Art
The first image is one of a series of gorgeous book sculptures from Kaspen, created for the Anagram Bookshop in Prague. While we aren't ready to put these on our own DIY list (perhaps a bit too intricate for us!) you can see more of these amazing sculputres at BibliOddyssey.
Grace at Design*Sponge went to Housingwork's Design on a Dime event, and spotted this amazing booth featuring books as wallpaper! They quite obviously add a sculptural element to the wall, and we love the open pages left to flutter in the air.
Thomas Allen photographs dime-store pulp fiction novels that he has turned into three dimensional sculptures. Like pop-up books for adults, these images are playful and imaginative. See more of his work at Foley Gallery.
Robert The chops, carves, and slices books into small creatures and objects. More of his work can be seen here.
Freshly Found has a fantastic tutorial on turning four magazines into a unique side table.
Comments (17)
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Wow... I love the first image!! I wish there was more detail about it on the Bibliodyssey site.
view sagekitten85's profile
the first image is incredible - and to me, illustrates the world of imagination that can be contained within the pages of a book.
view creative*type's profile
first image: UNBELIEVABLE
view formosagirl's profile
Brian Dettmer is another good artist working with books. He lives here in Atlanta. You can check out some of his work here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/briandettmer/
Elizabeth
http://emblemorstain.blogspot.com
view emblem or stain's profile
you can also use old book pages to make a pretty surface on any object:
http://thelulubird.blogspot.com/2009/05/paper-mache-bowls.html
view LuluLiz's profile
the first image is indeed wonderful! i do like all ideas except for the last one - that i find rather … erm … shoddy? silly? unnecessary?
view maike's profile
Um...books ARE art. Literary art. This should be titled "books as visual art" or "books as decoration."
*Lit geek mode off*
I love the octopus and the gun. The pulp fiction is okay, the table is tacky, and all those pages fluttering would be -incredibly- annoying to me. Though mostly...books are for reading, not for decorating.
view seraph's profile
I LOVE that first one. I think normally I'd be opposed to destroying a book to make something else but it would depend on the book and more so, on the intended end result.
I've seen people make clocks out of Dr. Seuss books. They look cool but I wouldn't be able to do that to one of his books.
I've also seen people take the front and back of an outdated, hard cover text book and use them as the front and back of a notebook filled with recycled paper. Whoa, this turned into a pretty wordy comment.
view nkstr's profile
Kaspen's creations, particularly the octopus, are awe-inspiring.
view dianalily's profile
Sticking books on the wall as wallpaper, no matter how fluttery & sculptural, would probably get your insurance cancelled in a wink due to the incredible fire hazard it poses. Just sayin'.
view Mlle Kate's profile
I NEED those Anagram posters... don't see them on their site- anyone travelling to Prague soon who will track one down for me? :)
view AudreyinPDX's profile
It would be a shame not to point folks to another amazing books-as-art piece that has haunted me since my trip to Prague many years ago: "Idiom" by Matej Krén (in the public library). You can begin to get a sense at this flickr pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yotung/2426032907/in/photostream/. Most (all?) of Krén's work is book related and stunning.
view tbjj's profile
I think just a series of posters based on the 'octopus' book idea would be incredible.
view baileyb's profile
See also the work of artist Su Blackwell:
http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2008/10/22/book-dioramas-by-su-blackwell/
view fabframes's profile
The octopus and the pulp fiction are amazing--my imagination is officially captured.
view bcthree's profile
Check out Mike Stilkey's book paintings:
http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1428&Itemid=27
view facebonezzz's profile
Dismantled books makes me queasy. I do like some of the spine painting/photography going on right now:
http://5thjoy.com/2009/11/03/book-art/
view fifthj's profile