More Love For Books

I love books. I have a houseful of them. I spend a ridiculous amount of time browsing bookstores and have worn a (metaphorical) deep path from my front door to the branch of my local library with innumerable trips over the past 30 years.

I love books because I love reading. Because I love stories. But beyond that, beyond the words, it is the ascetic of books that so strongly appeals to me; the bindings, the end papers, the deckled edges, the spines, the way the cover material creases at the corners where it is folded, tucked, and glued. I love those little bindi-jewel icons that mark the passage of time, and the evocative pages that often separate the beginning, the middle and the end.

So when I read about the Altered Book And Book Art Show at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, I was intrigued. Art made from books? What could be more of a visual treat?

The show more than met my hopes and expectations. One

hundred and fifty Bay Area artists have contributed hand-made, stunning, whimsical, thought-provoking bookart sculptures that each tells a story of its own. The pieces read like visual poems, some literal, some thoughtfully interpretive, some more abstract, some specifically commentary, but each piece is unique and visionary. (Try that, Kindle!) 

They have all been donated for auction, with one hundred percent of the proceedings to go to supporting Marin MOCA’s programs and activities. I was so inspired, I signed up to create a piece for next year’s show! (I’m thinking about an interpretation of Baba Yaga and her house that moves on chicken feet…)

And then yesterday as I was working on the revision of my historical novel, the additional thought came to me to create, as a support project to my revision, a bookart sculpture that would visually convey the essence of the story I’m trying to tell. So I’ve started gathering images, doing a few sketches and looking for an old book that is set in the location and published around the period of time that my story takes place (San Francisco, 1876) I’m excited to see what I can create and to find out if it helps me in my revision process.

I’ll keep you posted!

Take Good Care,

Sharry