whole duty of a woman

altered book detail with cut-outs, embroidery, reverse-painted silhouette & scrimshaw

Working on new pieces; referring to pieces from the past. More to come soon...

Thanks for the inspiration from my friend, Ellen!

wind, sand & stars

Beautiful combination of found object & original art.

from here via here

poetic gesture

In light of the season, this post caught my attention about mysterious paper sculptures magically appearing in the city of Edinburgh's public libraries. Earlier in the year, exquisitely crafted small works of art were discovered with notes attached supporting public libraries & the written word, & no one knows whence they came.

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… ... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

My favorite piece is the wing made from book pages. Incredible.

Here's to public art & anonymous gifts! Inspires me to hatch a little plan myself...

more here

thanks, desha!

story dress

Artist Christine Elfman's dress made of torn story books evokes childhood fairytales & whispers of family histories. The dress can actually be worn, literally enfolding you into the story.

In her series Story Dress II, Elfman builds on ideas of narrative & history by using reminisces recorded by her grandmother & incorporating them into a papier mâché dress. Photographing the resulting sculpture using the wet-plate collodion process & printing the images onto antique cabinet card mounts, she created a new historical record of her grandmother's memories. Inspired by unknown relatives in old family photo books & anonymous portraits in vintage shops, she was moved by the number of forgotten people regardless of photography's intent to capture & preserve: secure the shadow, 'ere the substance fades away.

from here

les belles recettes

Vintage French cookbooks made for American audiences, including first editions of the Cordon Bleu & the Art of French Cooking Volume II. I love the illustrations & design of the charming Peter Pauper Press editions, so I threw in a non-Gallic example from my collection as well. Bon appetit!

be here now

My kind of room: books in every nook & cranny, places to sit & many things to see. I love the blue of the sofas & how they seem to peacefully float in the space.

from here

marginalia

early birthday gift to self.

click on image to view larger version. it's worth it.

matter of words

Astounding installation by artist Adam Bateman for the BYU Museum of Art exhibition A Matter of Words  that involved 80,000 lbs. of donated books. I love how he approached building the corners, & the undulating waves created by the different thicknesses of the books.

via here

become someone else

A clever advertising campaign for Mint Vinetu bookstore to inspire people to read the classics. The Lithuanian agency Love explains their approach this way:

When one reads books, he/she starts living it and identifies (or not) with main hero. These print ads for the Mint Vinetu bookstore, which sells lots of classics, focuses on the idea of becoming someone else. And provokes people to try on different personas.

from here via here

feast for the eyes

Czech book covers from the 1960s, courtesy of the incredibly comprehensive book-related design collection at 50 Watts. Definitely worth a gander.

from here