Handmade Books
I am constantly searching for books to recycle and transform into art works. Since the mid 1980’s I have made over 100 such books from found or abandoned publications thrown out by libraries and schools. I also buy books from second hand shops, to cut up and collage. I spend a lot of time trawling the flea markets and thrift stores searching for photographs and other visual material to incorporate into my books. Each book is entirely unique and may evolve over a period of months but more often it is years before a book is complete. I work on many books simultaneously and allow them to germinate as an organic element gradually adding material as time goes by.
- Categories:
- Selected Pages,
- Details from a Painted Book.
Details from a Painted Book
This book was hand painted in 2000 working directly on Indian rag paper that had been dyed blue. I made idiosyncratic images that filter through from performance memories. Much of the painting is spontaneous and I don't know what I am painting at the time. Meanings if offered, yield themselves months of years later after a lot of contemplation. The idea of painting a whole book as a series of paintings that correspond with one another is very interesting. I disassembled the book and took various images out that did not work. This broke up the flow and rather like the strange time zones inhabited during a live performance added tension to the reading of the images that jumped back and forth, apparently without any reason. It's also imitative of the dream process.
(Top)