Art Books

Book Sculptures, Pop-up Carvings, Shrine Books, Folds, Tiny Art Books, Journals, Scrapbooks, and Collage

Sculpture Art

David Krakov

Cora Borer

Christopher Baker

Linda Smith

Natasha Ayres

Natasha Ayres

Natasha Ayres

Samantha Major

Brian Dettmer

• Brian Dettmer (born 1974) is an American contemporary artist. He is noted for his alteration of preexisting media—such as old books, maps, record albums, and cassette tapes—to create new, transformed works of visual fine art.

• A large body of Dettmer's current work is created by altering books, including older dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, science and engineering books, art books, medical guides, history books, atlases, comic books, wallpaper sample books, and others. Dettmer seals and cuts into the books, exposing select images and text to create intricate three-dimensional derivative works that reveal new or alternative interpretations of the books.

• Dettmer never inserts or moves any of the books' contents. (Moayeri 2008). This process is performed without pre-planning or mapping out the contents before cutting into the book. (Cullum 2010). As he cuts away unwanted material, Dettmer stabilizes the remaining paper with a varnish. (Fox 2009). (Information from wikipedia.)

• An early example of Dettmer's unique altered books is his 2003 work, New International Dictionary (pictured in the next slide), which is an original 1947 unabridged dictionary sealed and cut to expose images within the dictionary (Sundell 2005, at pg. 70).

More of Dettmer’s work:

Pop-Up Carvings

Shrine Books

Folds and Tiny Art Books

Journals and Scrapbooks

Used Books Made Into Art Books

Plamen Yordanov

Plamen Yordanov