If you ever find yourself hoarding old books, this artist might give you an idea of how to transform them into unique artwork.
Artist Guy Laramee creates amazing miniature book landscapes out of old books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. His series entitled The Great Wall and Biblios represent the degradation of human culture and show glacial landscapes, deep valleys, and plateaus.
"So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint Romantic landscapes," says the artist on his website. "Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are."
More info: guylaramee.com | Instagram
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Guy Laramée, an interdisciplinary artist from Canada, has been practicing for 30 years and has demonstrated his talents in a wide range of disciplines, including theater writing and directing, contemporary music composition, musical instrument design and building, singing, video, scenography, sculpture, installation, painting, and literature. He has been honored with over 30 arts grants and was awarded the prestigious Joseph S. Stauffer award for musical composition by the Canada Council. His artwork has been showcased in various countries, including the United States, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Latin America.
The theme of the erosion of cultures and the concept of "culture" as a whole has been a central focus of the artist's practice over the past 25 years. Through this lens, the artist has observed how cultures arise, become outdated, and are supplanted by new ones, with the disappearance of cultures often resulting in displacement and destruction for some individuals.
The artist has also considered the impact of modern technology on our society, including the perceived demise of physical books and libraries, and questioned whether these changes will ultimately have any significant effect on our human condition or existential dilemma. Ultimately, the artist has questioned the domination of analytical knowledge over intuitive knowledge, and reflected on why human beings feel compelled to translate their experiences into abstract concepts.
And lastly, here is what Laramée wrote on his website: “After 30 years of practice, the only thing I still wish my art to do is this: to project us into this thick ‘cloud of unknowing.’”If you are interested in this very talented and versatile artist, feel free to visit his website for more.
The unabridged version of a dictionary from. The 20th century. I'd be interested how many of those words are now extinct.
Thats a beautiful zen garden. Wonder if it's Mandarin or Japanese writing.
Note: this post originally had 58 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I'm really impressed to see mostly positive comments on these entries. Usually any articles about books made into decorations are flooded with people clamoring over each other to say how "horrified" they are to see books "ruined" because they're "extremely avid readers" and just could NEVER. These are cool art pieces made from books with thousands upon thousands of copies. Nothing was destroyed. Nothing was lost. It is okay to make books into something else. Cool art, creators!
I'm a book lover. I worked almost my entire life as an bookseller and editor. My collection of books includes many valuable first editions, some of them over 200 years old. And I completely concur. These are marvelous artistic creations sculpted from books that would otherwise been pulped.
I never approve of desecration of books. It brings up memories of Hitler's book burnings.
I've never understood the art of destroying old books. Don't get me wrong, the work was beautiful, but use newer books where there are thousands of copies, don't destroy old ones. They're legendary.
I'm so torn between being sad about the destruction of these beautiful books, and the history of them, and yet the art is also beautiful and impressive. Maybe not using real books would give the same feeling?
While these are definitely gorgeous pieces, and the artist is very clearly skilled, I have an automatic reaction to the destruction of any book. You can learn so much from old books, and not just the obvious. How people thought, how language evolved, what society was like, all of this can be gleaned from old books. Makes me sad even with such beautiful works.
I'm really impressed to see mostly positive comments on these entries. Usually any articles about books made into decorations are flooded with people clamoring over each other to say how "horrified" they are to see books "ruined" because they're "extremely avid readers" and just could NEVER. These are cool art pieces made from books with thousands upon thousands of copies. Nothing was destroyed. Nothing was lost. It is okay to make books into something else. Cool art, creators!
I'm a book lover. I worked almost my entire life as an bookseller and editor. My collection of books includes many valuable first editions, some of them over 200 years old. And I completely concur. These are marvelous artistic creations sculpted from books that would otherwise been pulped.
I never approve of desecration of books. It brings up memories of Hitler's book burnings.
I've never understood the art of destroying old books. Don't get me wrong, the work was beautiful, but use newer books where there are thousands of copies, don't destroy old ones. They're legendary.
I'm so torn between being sad about the destruction of these beautiful books, and the history of them, and yet the art is also beautiful and impressive. Maybe not using real books would give the same feeling?
While these are definitely gorgeous pieces, and the artist is very clearly skilled, I have an automatic reaction to the destruction of any book. You can learn so much from old books, and not just the obvious. How people thought, how language evolved, what society was like, all of this can be gleaned from old books. Makes me sad even with such beautiful works.
