this is awful, destroying a book to make some silly sculpture is very callous. A book is already a work of art and didnt need to be “turned into” a work of art.

I just saw similar sculptures in an Anthropologie store in Atlanta–I wonder if they are his? I thought it was the work of an incredibly talented merchandiser…. Better to create a new work of art than for the book to end up in a landfill somewhere!

I think these are absolutely amazing and lovely. You can tell that Nicholas takes the text into account in how it will play into the final appearance of the work. You couldn’t get the same effect with plain paper. I don’t have any problem whatsoever with using a book (i.e. found object) as the basis for a sculpture any more than another material. I think it is strange, Steve, that you would find every copy of every book too precious to be used as raw material for art, especially for such beautiful art.

I admit I initially cringe at the idea of destroying a book, but after seeing Brian Dettmer’s Book Autopsies, I can’t help but appreciate the transmogrification of one great work into another. If you haven’t seen his work, it’s well worth a look: Brian Dettmer’s Book Autopsies

Oh, come off it. Perhaps the sculpture references the subject matter. It’s not like we’re all sitting around waiting for another precious tome to come off the original Guttenberg.

so pretty! we did a lot of book sculptures like this at anthro in new york too so the work that the commenter above saw in atlanta probably was done by a merchandiser.
most of the books we used were really old random book s that were already kind of falling apart (spines broken, super-mildewy) so i don’t see any problem with recycling them for art.

Stunning!

we used to do things like this to our textbooks in elementary school (not nearly as cool, and never actually folded - would’ve been in trouble!) We would bend each page over into the spine to make a book of loops. Clearly we were artistic geniuses.

Thanks so much for the link Grace!

Well… I guess good artwork should always instigate discussion! I do understand the arguments put forward here… however, I must agree with Leigh and Ann… I don’t think ‘destroying’ is really a fair or accurate description of Nicholas’ use of these books! I would say Nicholas breathes new life into these books, and gives us a new way to appreciate and respond to them. Nicholas has received a large quantity of books from Melbourne University library that were bound for the bin. He also has friends who create new notebooks and journals using vintage book covers. They remove the inside pages from vintage books and pass these onto Nicholas to use in his work.

ps) Grace I bought the one in the second photo you selected! we must have similar taste… :)

SteveB, calm down. There are millions of copies of books printed in this world, heaven forbid a handful of them are turned into something creative like that. And how do you know those aren’t books originally created by the artist himself for this explicit purpose?? Geeze.

routedereuil, Those probably ARE the brilliant work of a merchandiser. We have to do similar (albeit, not as fantastic as the ones posted) ones for our store (not Anthropologie), though.

Thanks for posting these! I’d love to own such a lovely sculpture ;)

My initial reaction is the same as Steve B’s.
Only if the books are crappy romance novels, produced for the purpose, or rescued from the trash/recycling bin.

Artist Sam Winston produced a similar lovely piece using all 20 volumes of the oxford English dictionary www.samwinston.com/Sam_Winston.pdf