Chapter 7: Book Art

After another long pause, this time for family reasons, I am finding my way back into course work.

Activity 4.7.1 Researching book artists

The number of artists and their range of approaches to book art is even more enormous than I supposed. Looking at the images on the web I often wondered how they do it - to research even one of them closely would be a time-consuming (and rewarding) project.

1. Yvette Brown

I found Yvette Brown not on the internet, but during my Cambrian Way walk, visiting the Oriel cric gallery in Crickhowell. In the altered book, which is like a box, Yvette Brown introduces us to the robin and the gardener, with a short text and three-dimensional artwork. The book is like a little room in itself and leaves space for imagination, and there is a lot of humour in the interaction of text and image. The other books of this series "The Secret Life of Birds" as well as her pewter birds can be seen on Yvette Brown’s homepage http://www.yvettebrownworld.co.uk/.
Finding an altered book on my walk seemed like a wink ...  …

 

One of Yvette Brown's pewter birds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Isobelle Ouzman

What attracted me when I saw these pictures is the terrific depth the artist creates by cutting several layers into the book. I feel I might just step into the book, go round the corner and lose myself in a fairy tale world. From the photographs I would guess that Isobelle Ouzman bundles the pages with glue to a certain thickness, draws and paints and then cuts the layers. Here a few examples of her work, more can be seen on her homepage http://isobelleouzman.com/ .

 

3. Mary Alice Ramsey

Here is the link to Mary Alice Ramsey’s homepage http://www.maryaliceramsey.com/ , a US American artists who lives with her family in the Appalachian Mountains. I love the combination of text and images in her altered books, especially where she works with extended pages and creates windows through which a text or a part of the covered image can be glimpsed. When the extensions open out, the character of the pages can change in remarkable ways. 

4. Peter Callesen

The work of Peter Callesen is not about altered books, but I find his way of storytelling with paper cuts fascinating and deeply moving. These images are just a few examples, there is much more to be found on his homepage www.petercallesen.com.

These are just a few of the artists I looked up. After looking at such a wealth of possibilities I find it necessary to get back to my drawings and the work done until now and see which ideas suggest themselves. Less looking and thinking, more doing. What I would like to try (at the moment):
- extended pages (once again)
- cut-outs and windows
- pop-up elements
- different ways of combining text and images