These are AMAZING. No words are needed to describe them. Just click through and look at all of the photos. Book-artist Brian Dettmer uses surgical grade tools to slice and dice these pages into deep layered works of sculptured paper and art. He lives over in Atlanta. Here is a quick interview with Dettmer.
Abraham Lincoln did a lot of good for this country and he’s done a lot of good for the book industry. Currently, there is a monumental tower at Ford’s Theater made up of 15,000 books, each a unique title about Abraham Lincoln, driving this point home.
His story is one that is always coming out under a new title every year. It’s amazing how many books are still being written on Lincoln. I wonder what’s left to be said?
I’ve only read two books out of this massive 34 foot tower (which combined are only 8.34 inches thick, so that leaves about 33 feet to go). It may be a cool art piece, but I just see a massive TBR pile. I wonder if Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer is included? Because if it is, then I have read three. They need to publish a list of the books.
PBS has a great new documentary-short series out with the latest installments focusing on a handful of book artists. This video is under six minutes long. The film starts with a paper engineer who has helped make some of the world’s best pop-up books as well as a paper sculptor (timecode 2:08) who cuts books and images into “book tunnels”. They also talk to an artist (timecode 3:37) that tears, glues, weaves and re-molds books into new collages and forms, in an effort to make her artistic point. It’s all very fascinating. PBS posted the documentary to YouTube and I have embedded it here:
The weather was GORGEOUS here in Birmingham this past weekend. I’m not sure there was a better way to spend it than cruising the stalls at this year’s Bluff Park Art Show. They had some new folks there, so that was neat, but I really enjoyed the handful of print-artists that were there.
Katherine Linn was there and had some great prints. Many are local landmarks with a subset sporting vibrant colors.
Justin Banger was also there. This was my first time seeing Justin’s prints. They were very well-done and the subject matter will keep you staring for quite a while. Lots to think about, besides technique.
Debra Riffe was also there this weekend. She had a new print of Amos Kennedy, that was fantastic! When I asked about it she said it will never be for sale. The Amos Kennedy Print is pulled from a small 50 print run she did as a birthday gift for Kennedy. She says she got to keep one and Kennedy got the rest. I would have loved to have this one to hang by my Kennedy posters. Oh well.
I also found out, at the show, that Georgia-based artist Sarah Rishel is retiring. She’s been churning out intaglio prints for 30+ years and says she’s ready to explore something else. Tip: I’ve emailed her to see if I can get the etching that a print I bought was pulled from. I hear she is in the habit of selling plates. So if you’re lucky enough to have one of hers on your wall, it may be worth seeing if you can buy the etching. How neat would that be to display them side-by-side?
There were a couple of other paper-artists and printers that I didn’t get to visit. I hope they all come back next year.
