Comments on: Brian Dettmer Carves Books

Brian Dettmer Carves Books

jonson — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:06:27 -0800

Brian Dettmer is an artist/surgeon who carves books into intricate, astonishing & precise new pieces of art.

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:06:48 -0800

Found via.

By: Zinger

Zinger — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:16:18 -0800

I don't know whether to be intrigued or horrified. Interesting concept, very good execution, but man, those are books he's slicing up. /vivid childhood memories of stern librarians promising hellfire for cracked spines and turned down corners

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:22:47 -0800

I saw this a week ago and thought of posting it, but the idea of what he's doing to these books really does disturb me. Yes I know I have a problem.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:25:16 -0800

Cool!

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:26:48 -0800

Okay. That stuff's just plain cool.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:29:43 -0800

If I could be assured that he was only cutting up, say, Dan Brown novels or something, I would appreciate this.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:39:02 -0800

You know, I don't quite understand the 'OMG! Ruining books' reaction, whether to people writing marginalia or making art. I like and value books, but assuming he's not cutting up a Shakespeare first folio, or something slightly less rare but old and out of print, well, who cares? I've held some lovely books in my time, and admired the bindings and the cloth covers and the artistry of the package--I even fell in love with the paper they used in the A format bindings of Harry Potter paperbacks in Canada (since replaced with much less interesting paper for the larger, later books). But the real value of books is in the words and images they contain. And those can be reprinted without devaluing the original.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:39:56 -0800

Wow, that's amazing. I'm not sure what the problem is with doing this. I love books and think of them and treat them pretty reverently, but they're almost all mass produced objects. Dettmer is creating unique artworks from those mass produced things, and, since he's using just one of the many copies of any given book, isn't restricting anyone else's ability to read the title in question.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:45:21 -0800

Pretty sweet. Is he painting on the surface he's creating within the book, or are the colors and pictures illustrations saved/carved out from pages within? Dammit, jonson, you've gotta stop giving away those vias.

By: blaneyphoto

blaneyphoto — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 10:49:34 -0800

Weird stuff, for sure.

By: brneyedgrl

brneyedgrl — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:00:10 -0800

as a librarian, I'm also disturbed by the destruction of books...on the other hand, we weed out books all the time...most people would be surprised what goes out the backdoor to the trashcan. Anyone who creats like this guy, should have his medium.

By: malaprohibita

malaprohibita — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:04:13 -0800

beautiful stuff. I could see some knucklehead trying to sue him for some copyright violation.

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:19:56 -0800

Dammit, jonson, you've gotta stop giving away those vias. You're probably only kidding, but seriously, 99% of the stuff I link to here comes from like five sources (NotCot, Bifurcated Rivets, Ectomo.com, and a couple others). Pretty soon anyone who likes the things I like will have already seen them, and then how will I feed my insatiable hunger for favorites???

By: substrate

substrate — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:49:00 -0800

Pretty cool. I don't cringe at all that he's carving up books. He's not borrowing them from the library and returning them mangled. He doesn't have a night time career of robbing museums of human history for priceless manuscripts. Books are mass produced, even hard covers are for the most part only in the 10's of dollars. Actually, the last time I cringed with regards to books was talking with my sister. Intelligent and bright, very artistic... hasn't read a book in 15 years other than a couple of parenting books.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:49:22 -0800

These are beautiful. I'm not worried about the books. It's not like he's shitting on them; he's making new representations of their contents.

By: bluishorange

bluishorange — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:59:49 -0800

I saw an exhibit of his work at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago this spring, and I really enjoyed it, especially the skeleton made of melted cassette tapes. <--Flickr self-link Something tells me that the melting of Cheap Trick cassettes doesn't elicit the same outrage as the carving of books.

By: troubles

troubles — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:05:59 -0800

I remember times I used to be appalled at the idea of throwing out/recycling books...even terrible ones. It was actually a librarian friend that helped me see things differently, talking about 'weeding out' the old outdated books to keep the library more relevant and healthy. I think we ascribe some kind of sacredness to them, which is interesting... i'm not totally sure why. well, in any case, beautiful art. Also, I imagine most people won't be as offended by his skull made of what seems to be old heavy metal audiotapes.

By: troubles

troubles — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:11:11 -0800

ah, there i go being an echo

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 12:41:55 -0800

They ruined perfectly good trees to make the perfectly good books this guy ruined to make his perfectly good art.

By: HappyHippo

HappyHippo — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:14:26 -0800

Great post! and a totally bitchin' link! Thanks!

By: Malor

Malor — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 14:09:12 -0800

I realize it's irrational, but to me books are important, especially hardcover ones. Even though it's just one of many copies, I've been deeply conditioned to believe that every single one is a treasure, to be loved and respected.... especially the old ones, as many of these probably are, judging from what I can see of the bindings. This guy's art is wonderful, but I'm very conflicted in looking at it; I wish he'd chosen a different medium. Those are old books he's killing, ones from when bookbinders took pride in their work, and it makes me sad.

By: mosspink

mosspink — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:57:29 -0800

Amazing links, jonson. Thanks!

By: ethnomethodologist

ethnomethodologist — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:19:16 -0800

He's MAKING something out of PAPER. He isn't DESTROYING anything.

By: Malor

Malor — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:25:21 -0800

I don't think you're going to be reading those books anymore.

By: oddman

oddman — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:02:47 -0800

Why would you do that to a book? It's monstrous.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:13:01 -0800

Y'all are nuts. Do you also love cheap 70's paperbacks?

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:34:24 -0800

Wait, don't answer that. I don't want to know.

By: maurice

maurice — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 04:11:01 -0800

I'd love to see what this guy would do with a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus.

By: Shohn

Shohn — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 06:01:19 -0800

I've heard of deconstruction, but this is ridiculous. Seriously, I think this is fantastic. I used to have a tendency. toward book-worship, but have gotten over it. Obviously there are antique and rare books that shouldn't be messed with, but by and large books are tools and aren't worth any more idolatry than a hammer.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:32:40 -0800

Mind boggling work. Wow. What a thrill. Thanks jonson.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:55:24 -0800

PS Looking at his work more thoroughly, they aren't merely astonishing, they're so beautiful! Haven't enjoyed something so intensely in a long time. Just called the gallery that represents his work here in NYC: Haydeé Rovirosa Gallery 529 W 20th St. Floor 7, New York, NY 10011, T. 212 462 2600 They're located between 10th and 11th Avenues. They sold most of the pieces of his but still have a few left. I'm going there to have a look.

By: phoque

phoque — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 08:19:41 -0800

jonson, you ... well ... goddamn ... understand there is an unwritten "expletive COOL" voiced by me for seemingly every post you make ... and this is no exception.

By: dlugoczaj

dlugoczaj — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:18:13 -0800

"Those are old books he's killing" I feel more like it's resurrecting than killing.

By: jonson

jonson — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 12:24:32 -0800

Thanks, phoque! I appreciate the compliment.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:55:17 -0800

Cara Barer: "My photographs are primarily a documentation of a physical evolution. I have changed a common object into sculpture in a state of flux."