“Recycled books are the perfect medium to create art,” I said to my book-loving husband.
This is the story about how I won’t be using any of our books to create sculpture anytime soon but why I think YOU should.
This past summer my family moved all of our precious belongings from one house to another. Something that I realized in that move is just how many books we have! Truth be told, it is far too many. But not if you ask my husband.
You see, my husband loves books! We have bookshelves in almost every room in the house and too many books to ever really run out of things to read. There’s also a set of encyclopedias. And different versions of dictionaries, bibles, joke books and besherelles.
Our collection of books
Honestly, I tease him constantly about his book collection, but I have contributed to it quite a bit myself. For example, my entire classroom library of pictures books and juvenile chapter books are currently on display in our home. Secretly, or maybe not so secretly, I love picture books. My favourite books these days are centered around the theme of nature. If you’re looking for an excellent curated list of picture books for your classroom or home I suggest My Favourite Nature Picture Books for Third Grade. I figure having a plethora of books is a direct result of being a primary school teacher for over a decade.
So, upon moving in and unpacking the boxes upon boxes of books, I came to realize just how important books are to our family. Our children adore reading and we do as well. One day, I was teasing my husband about his outdated encyclodepias but then he grabs the book labeled “F” flips to a page 108 and reads me an exerpt on fountain pens.
I am enthralled. Who knew fountain pens could be so interesting?
Recycled books artists claims, “Books are alive!”
There is a connection to books which I completely understand. As Brian Dettmer says in his TedTalk, “Books are alive!” and that makes total sense to anyone that is passionate about reading. As you read from their pages, they connect you to a place or a time or a feeling. It’s why we feel upset when a good book ends.
It’s why when I saw what Brian Dettmer carving into books my jaw dropped.
You see, he takes books and recycles them by forming a magnificient piece of art. What was once old is new again.
Recycled Books: How it works
Brian takes an old, thick book and stabilizes it by attaching it to his table. Using a craft knife and his imagination he cuts through the pages of the book removing pieces of pages while leaving some pages untouched. He ends up leaving carefully selected pieces from the book intact in order to form a new story, a new book and new piece of art.
After unpacking our books post-move, I was joking with my husband that I was going to use his prized encyclopedia set to create some of my own Brian Dettmer art. I thought it was funny. My husband? Not so much. He’s forgiven me.
If you’d like to see Brian Dettmer talk about his book art, I highly recommend this TedTalk, “Old books reborn as art.”
After viewing this Tedtalk, it made me wonder how many things in our everyday lives we can reuse and recycle to form pieces of art. Books. Clothes. Furniture. Food.
An artists’ mind has this uncanny ability to take something ordinary, something without a definitive or relevant purpose, and turn it into something fantastic.
Recycled Book Art
Whether you plan on doing this type of recycled art activity for yourself, or perhaps with a group of students, I think the theme of rebirth (via book recycling) will hit close to home. As Brian suggests in the video, people are connected to books as though the books are living beings and that books never die.
If this project seems far too complicated or overwhelming, I would suggest starting small by doing a recycled book project that involves folding rather than cutting. Instructables has an amazing folded book art tutorial that would be great for students grade 3 through 5. It looks like it would be a pretty simple task to make something that is not being used into something that is beautiful again. Better yet, the folding book art tutorial doesn’t require use of tools that could be risky or dangerous.
I wonder if recycled book art is the perfect answer to the question: Can books evolve?
Is recycled book art something worth trying?
Will you take old books and recycle them into new, precious works of art? If you do, be sure to share your tips and tricks in the comments below. I would love to see your amazing works of art!
