I was looking through a list of "call for entries" when I saw where a Santa Fe gallery had expanded and posted three calls for entries for themed shows to exhibit in their larger space. The three themes were BOX, BOOK, and LINE. A "light bulb went off" and I had an idea to shred book pages to make an abstracted book!
I shredded pages from several books, chosen for their yellowed paper, language or illustrations. I used The Earth and the Stars ©1925, 1946; The Home Book of Art ©1884; Devil’s Ditties ©1931; Les Temps Modernes ©1959 and L’Europe Gothique XII XIV siécles. I made one 6" x 12" cradled panel (on the left) and then decided it would be fun to do a "facing page" and connect the two panels. As I made the right panel, I tried to make it relate to what was on the left panel – including putting the facing page number (43) in about the center, across from page 42. At times it felt like I was making a wild poem with the fragments of text. (If you click on the image, you can see what I mean.) We used a 3/8" aluminum channel to "bind" the book pages.
My Women's Art Workshop has taken a few months off while two of our members were in warmer parts of the country. I've proposed that our first topic be BOOK and we can submit any finished pieces that please us to the Santa Fe show. Stay tuned... more books to come!
