Destruction as creation.

January 16, 2007 11:02 PM

"Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who uses a scalpel instead of a brush or a pen. She works with obsessive perserverance to create constructions that transform found ephemera, such as books, music scores, maps, newspapers, currency and photographs." Samples here. {via design dna}
posted by dobbs (18 comments total)

Beautiful. Obsessive. It must take a long time to produce one of those pieces.
posted by Skygazer at 11:29 PM on January 16, 2007

Wow! Russel's stuff is GREAT! Love it! Thanks for the post Dobbs!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:58 AM on January 17, 2007

This is my favorite. Thanks dobbs.
posted by The God Complex at 1:03 AM on January 17, 2007

Really lovely stuff, dobbs. Thanks.
posted by maryh at 1:46 AM on January 17, 2007

Great find thanks dobbs. I would not challenge her to a knife fight. There's a picture of her working and another of her works in an earlier post at design dna too.
posted by peacay at 2:18 AM on January 17, 2007

Makes me want to get slashing all my books! I fear the results might be a little less interesting, though..
posted by imperium at 2:23 AM on January 17, 2007

Very nice. Thanks.
posted by klausness at 2:29 AM on January 17, 2007

When I first read the post, I thought, 'Not another artist using self-mutiliation as a medium'. I'm so glad that I'm wrong. Her work is both fresh, thoughtful and beautifully executed. Bravo, Ms. Russell. Bravo.
posted by nonreflectiveobject at 2:39 AM on January 17, 2007

It's a holey new form of art! Absolutely excellent; I'll be sure to keep an eye out for a chance to see these for real.
posted by Abiezer at 3:07 AM on January 17, 2007

Ms. Russell, we regret to inform you that your library card will not be renewed.
posted by hal9k at 3:58 AM on January 17, 2007

Interesting, but I'm afraid most of the results seem quite nasty to me. If you're going to destroy books, you need to come up with something good at the end of it, but these just look like a cross between some unlovely fungal growth and the contents of the office shredder.
posted by Phanx at 5:31 AM on January 17, 2007

I like it, and thanks for posting this. Yet. Yet, I agree with Jasper Johns dictum, "Do something, do something to that, then do something to that." I find it to be too one-off. One idea, self-confined.
posted by wallstreet1929 at 6:12 AM on January 17, 2007

It's wrong to destroy literature.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:54 AM on January 17, 2007

Tell that to the mosquito you swatted with last week's TV Guide.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:16 AM on January 17, 2007

Better this than the trash heap.
posted by Skygazer at 7:17 AM on January 17, 2007

Dissected, tagged, and framed Human Nervous System, Kirksville Osteopathic College, 1935.
[Details here]
posted by cenoxo at 8:49 AM on January 17, 2007

totally amazing--thanks!
posted by amberglow at 3:12 PM on January 17, 2007

Wow, What a delightful surprise! These are fresh and fascinating works of art, unexpected and intriguing transformations.

Some have a kind of lacy macabre look, like a specimen of a lace jellyfish or something in a bell jar.

Some of her works are lightly humorous. This one looks like a literary version of a plasma ball.
posted by nickyskye at 7:56 PM on January 17, 2007