Brian Dettmer's Book Art

Brian Dettmer is known as "the Book Surgeon" for his technique of carving up old volumes to create beautiful sculptural art. Taking collage to the next level, he neither adds nor rearranges, only removes using scissors and surgical tools transforming dictionaries, old medical textbooks, and out-of-date encyclopedias into mind-boggling dioramas.

My Modern Met features fifteen illustrations of Dettmer's bibliotransformations as well as an exclusive interview with seven more photos. Visit the website of Brian Dettmer to view additional work dating from 2005 to 2010. Recent press includes an article on The New Yorker's "Book Bench" titled Postmodern Deconstruction. A solo show is scheduled for May 19, 2011 – June 11, 2011 at Kinz + Tillou in New York City.

Trash to Treasure

There is something satisfying in finding vintage collage materials like this old book jacket for free! I also picked up a nice copy of A Dictionary of the Bible by Davis to add to my dictionary collection. It certainly was cold at the dump this morning. Time to find my gloves!

Here are a couple of cool paperback covers:

And in closing, a recap of the details:

Old Books

I felt a strong urge to visit the dump on Sunday and I'm glad I followed up on it as I found a lovely two volume New Century Dictionary with wonderful illustrations, in addition to an old leather-bound 1828 bible, and a small volume titled Making Haste to Be Rich; or, The Temptation and Fall (Tales for the Rich & Poor) published in 1852.

Stuck in side the bible was a copy of a 1972 Boston Sunday Globe article: "Old Bibles and their value." The pages are attractively foxed and the paper is heavy.

Clothilde's Dictionary

Yesterday I found a wonderful old French dictionary that could have belonged to my great-grandmother, Clothilde Simoneau (1877-1950). The little illustrations are marvelous and there are lovely chapter headings for every letter of the alphabet, plus some color plates and full page diagrams. The back cover is missing but the front cover was still attached and it is a thing of beauty!