books

Posts tagged
with books

Art

New Snowcapped Mountains and Swirling Vortexes Excavated from Vintage Books by Guy Laramée

Continuing to amaze us with his elaborate dictionary and encyclopedia carvings, Guy Laramée‘s (previously here and here) newest works feature deep caverns and valleys that retreat hundreds of pages down into his excavated books. One in particular, “V,” appears like a snowcapped vortex circling down into an endless pit. Viewing this piece, or any of his mountainous works, it’s hard to imagine that their material is stacked and sandblasted paper, the sheets presented more like layers of earth than printed definitions.

Laramée chooses to carve into sources of reference as a conceptual nod to the erosion of cultures, a theme that has pervaded the last 25 years of his practice. “Cultures emerge, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones,” Laramée’s artist statement explains. “With the vanishing of cultures, some people are displaced and destroyed. We are currently told that the paper book is bound to die. The library, as a place, is finished. One might ask, so what?”

His works attempt to showcase how increasing knowledge might actually be an erosion rather than accumulation by altering these previous beacons of information. They are now integrated into our digital systems, and their husks transformed into mountains and valleys.

You can see more of Laramée’s carved and painted books at JHB Gallery in New York City and Foster/White Gallery in Seattle.

Design

Drape Yourself in Literature with Book Scarves from FreshComfy

If you like getting lost in a good book, here’s your chance to literally cover up in one. Thailand-based FreshComfy prints the covers and pages of classic books on lightweight chiffon scarves. Books include retro covers for The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, or even illustrated maps from Lord of the Rings. See more in their shop! (via Lost At E-Minor)

Animation Illustration

Illustrations Brought to Life in Picture Book ‘Vento’ by Virgilio Villoresi and Virginia Mori

In a style reminiscent of Edward Gorey's dark illustrations in Victorian settings, Virgilio Villoresi and Virginia Mori have created a book that becomes animated once an optical film is placed over the pages. The technique—which dates back to pre-cinema—allows the characters’ shadows to flicker gently, hair to rustle in the wind, and waves to crash gently against a rowboat found within the books’ pages.

Titled Vento, the picture book is a result of Villoresi’s animation and Mori’s illustration, the Italian duo inspired to produce the book as an homage to the relationship between image and movement. Vento is the first in a series of animated books by Withstand Film that contain minimal plots to encourage readers to weave together their own interactive narrative.

You can see more of Villoresi’s animations here, and Mori’s black pen illustrations on her Tumblr site here.

 

Art Design

Beautiful LEGO: Wild!, a New Book Exploring Natural Brick Wonders

LEGO-based artist, author, and curator Mike Doyle (previously here and here) has collected another impressive set of LEGO masterpieces in his lastest book Beautiful LEGO: Wild! by No Starch Press, a book that explores natural wonders from undersea landscapes to a family of sea otters produced from over 3,500 LEGO pieces. Unlike Doyle’s last book which featured sculptures depicting sci-fi horrors and ghoulish nightmares, this book collects the works of several dozen artists who capture natural scenes from our planet’s Animal Kingdom and beyond.

One of Doyle’s own pieces that appears in the book is a new piece titled Appalachian Mountaintop Removal (2015), a work composed of more than 10,000 pieces that directly references the act outlined in its title. Mountaintop removal is a form of coal mining affecting the Appalachian Mountains that levels mountains, poisons aquifers, and damages surrounding wildlife indefinitely. You can learn how to help the destruction of these natural resources as well as view more of Doyle’s massive lego sculptures on his blog here.

Design Photography

This Book Is a Camera: A Functioning Pinhole Camera Inside a Pop-Up Book

Artist and designer Kelli Anderson just released her latest book This Book is a Camera, a pop-up book that turns into a fully functional pinhole camera. The book acts as a simple educational tool to help explain how photography worked before we all had camera phones in our pockets. Anderson points out that making a simple camera obscura really isn’t too difficult and provides instructions on how you can make one yourself.

This Book is a Camera comes complete with a starter pack of B/W Ilford photo paper and instructions on how to use the camera to take photos. You’ll still need to pick up some developer fluid and have a dark room to develop photos in. Stay tuned for Anderson’s forthcoming This Book is a Planetarium from Chronicle Books. (via Quipsologies)

Art Design

Nine Artist-Designed Miniature Book Sharing Libraries Appear in Indianapolis

Engaging new audiences and attracting people to libraries in 2015 can be tough, but some libraries are up to the challenge. As a way to simultaneously improve literacy and foster an appreciation for local artists, the Indianapolis Public Library and artist Rachel M. Simon conceived the Public Collection, an endeavor to create nine artist-designed miniature libraries filled with free books.

While the idea of free sharing libraries in urban locations isn’t new (we’ve mentioned several different projects here on Colossal over the years), this project seems particularly ambitious and original by highlighting the sculptural works of Indiana artists and by providing a diverse selection of reading material free to the public.

Perhaps the most ambitious design was built by artist Brian McCutcheon. Titled ‘Monument,’ the five pillar library supports a physical construction of the famous Mark Twain quote: “A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.” The base of each pillar contains a circular shelf where passersby can take and leave books as they wish.

Our personal favorite though is ‘Nautilus,’ a spiral-shaped shelf and reading bench built from reclaimed wood by Katie Hudnall. She says “the body of this piece is loosely derived from the image of a boat on water and is designed to remind the viewer that books (and education in general) can be a form of transportation.”

You can see all of the new Public Collection sharing library designs on-site at the Indianapolis Public Library.