This Week in the Mercury
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Books / Artsy Books, Under the Knife
Posted by Matt Stangel on Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 5:15 PM
It's not often that I condone cutting up books— or otherwise destroying information— but over the last few days, three items have blipped onto my radar that I'm willing to make exceptions for.
- visual-editions.com
- Jonathan Safran Foer's Code of Trees
Jonathan Safran Foer's newest release, Code of Trees, took the author's favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz, and removed various words and sentence fragments in order to create a new story. While the book works as, well, a book, it also carries a sculptural appeal. Read what Foer has to say about the project on HuffPost.
- fluxshop.se
- The Flux Bible
Similar to Foer's project is the recent Flux Bible, released by Fluxshop. The text— chopped twice horizontally— is described by Fluxshop in the following terms, with no further explanation: "This book allows you to mix three different religions in any way you want." It would be nice to know which religious texts are being used, but it's an interesting concept, none the less. (Sidenote: I'm not sure about Fluxshop's affiliation with the remaining members of Fluxus, but they operate under the collective's "intermedia" banner, as evidenced by the Flux Bible's mixture of sculpture and writing.)
- hyperallergic.tumblr.com
- Brian Dettmer's "The Household Physicians"
While both of the above projects rely on the text of their source materials, Brian Dettmer uses books to a purely sculptural end— employing the physical depth of his chosen medium in order to fabricate diorama-esque objects. These things are pretty effing amazing, and he's created a lot of them (see more after the jump).
- flickr.com/briandettmer
- Brian Dettmer's "Compiled Upon a New Plan"
- flickr.com/briandettmer
- Brian Dettmer's "The Encyclopedia of Architecture"
- flickr.com/briandettmer
- Brian Dettmer's "The Volume Library"
More from Dettmer, right here.
Most Commented on Blogtown, PDX
-
Scenes from the the No on Fluoride Party. Which Is Winning by Denis C. Theriault
-
Bunkered Down: Pro-fluoride Edition by Dirk VanderHart
-
Gloaters Gonna Gloat by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
-
"Tin-Foil Hat Parade," at City Hall Tonight, Celebrates Fluoride Defeat by Denis C. Theriault
-
Hey, Slackers! Your New Arts Tax Deadline is Monday, June 10 by Denis C. Theriault
-
The Pope Doesn't Understand the Point of Atheists by Paul Constant
-
Birth of a Killer Tornado by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey
-
If You Missed KBOO's Election Roundup (with Yours Truly as a Guest), Listen Here by Denis C. Theriault
-
Union Way by Marjorie Skinner
-
Scientology's Shiny New Church/Giftshop by Alex Falcone
Our Friends
- UrbanHonking
- Culture Shock
- Portland Roundball Society
- Steph Cassano
- Cort and Fatboy
- Street Roots
- Powell's Books Blog
- Portland Transport
- Portland Afoot
- Bike Portland
- Eater: PDX
- Portland Food and Drink
- Mr. Movie
- Sunday Softball
- BlueOregon
- Sightline Institute
- Ultra: Arts Portland
- Bitch Magazine
- Blazer's Edge
- Reading Local: Portland
- Portland Food Carts
- Stumptown Vegans
Our Enemies
RSSGoing to Seattle?
