amazing book sculpture.

I found an article about Long-Bin Chen's work whilst waiting in an airport lounge in Thailand last June. Long-Bin Chen creates his sculptures of figures and portrait busts by stacking and carving used text books, training manuals, magazines, telephone directories or computer printouts. He then carefully sands the surfaces to give the paper and printed texts the appearance of stone or wood. The individual pages of the book are not glued together other than at the original binding spine. I really like the reinvention and recycling of telephone books.

Tang Dynasty Buddha with FlowersPhone books17 by 10 by 10 inches
2006

I found this book art on a design website called toxel.com which is a great design inspiration website. Above is by Georgia Russell who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen, creating constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs. Below is a book reconstructed like a pop up by Su Blackwell who employs this delicate, accessible medium and uses irreversible, destructive processes to reflect on the precariousness of the world we inhabit and the fragility of our life, dreams and ambitions.