‘The 100’ #30 – Altered Books, Part 1…

A very popular contemporary art form that frequently fuses text and art is the altered book. An altered book is a form of mixed-media art that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning.

To make an altered book, the artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to, collages, rebinds, creates pop-ups, rubber-stamps, drills, bolts, and/or be-ribbons it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags and ephemera or other three-dimensional objects. Some change the shape of the book, or use multiple books in the creation of the finished piece of art.

Altered books may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture. Victorian or antique art is frequently used, probably because it is easier to avoid copyright issues. Altered books are shown and sold in art galleries and on-line.

Since exploring Altered Books with my students I have collected hundreds of images of altered book pages and will post a selection of them in three parts. This post is Part 1 -The flat page with art and text.  Part 2 will look at Altered Book poetry; and Part 3: The sculpted book and found objects.

More Altered Book Images:  (All Credits at bottom of page).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credits from top to bottom:  Altered Book information – Wikipedia.  Picture 1 – susanlenz.com / Picture 2 – sperkins.wordpress.com / Picture 3 – by Terry Owen: autumnwindstudios.com / Picture 4 – by Shauna Palmer: art-e-zine.co.uk / Picture 5 – by darkRRab: pavoninestudios.com / Picture 6 – by Helga: art-e-zine.co.uk / Picture 7 – ingriddijkers.com / Picture 8 – stempelchaotin.wordpress.com

‘The 100′ series was initiated by my 100th Post in April 2012. As text and images are the essence of my blog my intention is to present 100 pieces of textual art from historical and contemporary artists and from my own hand. To view the series to date click on ‘The 100’ in my Category Menu.