"I use simple arithmetic and an exacto knife as my supplies along with lots of time."

February 13, 2011 7:32 AM

"I am someone who has never taken an art class in my life...I didn't think I had an artistic bone in my body and never thought of myself as creative." Neat book art made with folds and an exacto knife from Isaac Salazar, who, according to his Flickr bio, is an accountant in New Mexico. [Via boingboing and Core77]

Apparently he was inspired by the Readers Digest Christmas Tree. There are a few more at his Etsy page.

posted by mediareport (17 comments total)

Destroying books is cool!
posted by gjc at 7:38 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ha. I manage a used bookstore where we adore books as physical objects, and one of the transactions we love most is when an artist comes by and clears out a shelf or two of our 10- and 25-cent books outside. It's so cute how apologetic they can be: "I feel terrible, but I'm going to cut these up" or "I'm going to glue them together and drill a hole and make a lamp, I'm really sorry," etc.

We just laugh and tell them we'd love a picture of the final product.
posted by mediareport at 7:44 AM on February 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

It's certainly the best use for Stephanie Meyer's work that I've yet seen.
Snark aside, I like these. The texture of book edges is fascinating, and if you don't have any reason not to carve them, why not?
posted by Countess Elena at 7:47 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Folding pithy statements and simplistic designs into a Readers Digest Condensed Book is a craft.

Brian Dettmer is an artist.

(Brian Dettmer and other book artists can be found previously, previously, and previously.)
posted by elsietheeel at 8:01 AM on February 13, 2011 [12 favorites]

Brian Dettmer is an artist.

Beacuse it's more complicated, is that it?
posted by kenko at 8:07 AM on February 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

More complicated than what? Canned fish?
posted by item at 8:18 AM on February 13, 2011

These pictures fill me with an urge to just squeeze these books shut!
posted by milestogo at 8:21 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I usually love paper art- anything with folding, cutouts etc...but I do have a weird 'hey, now no one can read those books!' feeling here.
posted by bquarters at 8:56 AM on February 13, 2011

So neat! As a sometimes schnipster, this makes me want to get out my scissors!

Having said that, I think it's sad that he never thought of himself as creative. We are all creative and all have the same creative potential! I truly believe that. It's so hard to convince people who say "I can't draw" that drawing is really about mark making and that they can do it.
posted by Calzephyr at 8:58 AM on February 13, 2011

Omg, my kind of visual bliss, thank you mediareport!
posted by nickyskye at 9:13 AM on February 13, 2011

Folding pithy statements and simplistic designs into a Readers Digest Condensed Book is a craft.

You can define art however you want, of course, but craft is generally defined as creating something with a practical use.

However...

Dettmer = art I enjoy looking at and finding meaning in for extended periods
Salazar = art that interests me not at all

To each his own, though. Good for him for discovering something that makes him feel like an artist, which is really all that matters.
posted by Huck500 at 9:54 AM on February 13, 2011

Woe unto the biologist who devises a technique for measuring the amount of artistry present in one's bone marrow.
posted by LogicalDash at 10:13 AM on February 13, 2011

I do have a weird 'hey, now no one can read those books!' feeling here.

I sympathize, but take some comfort in the fact that chances are good no one would have read those given books again anyway. There really are way too many books out there.

(Though I would hope the crafter would doublecheck before taking it to the exacto knife.)
posted by IndigoJones at 10:32 AM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

I get so sad when I think about all the lovely crystallized carbonates that sculptors have smashed to dust over the centuries.
posted by drdanger at 10:51 AM on February 13, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yes, I read that first URL as: Book o' Fart
posted by LordSludge at 12:41 PM on February 13, 2011

Some art is just about executing good or interesting ideas, no art classes required.
posted by Sreiny at 2:17 PM on February 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's horribly sad for society when the artists act like stodgy tenured professors and deride the creations of those who do something artistic without the go-ahead from the "artist community".
posted by swimming naked when the tide goes out at 9:03 PM on February 13, 2011