Altered Book by Brian Dettmer

Altered book artist Brian Dettmer's pieces always amaze me, but this one especially so.

 Webster Withdrawn, 2010

Brian Dettmer

Altered Book #7 - Make Your Garden Beautiful....and they will come

This is an antique book that had beautiful deckled pages, yellowed and aged.  But the spine was missing so I decided to cover it to make it look very organic.  I gathered some mosses and vines and glued it on the spine and cover.   I placed an antique escutcheon on the front cover.  Still a work in progress while I altered the inside.

Altered Book #6 The Empty Nest

This was a private and boarding school directory before it became a birds nest.  I created a mother bird out of clay and placed it in the center of the empty nest.  The book was very thick.  I used a razor blade(s) to shred it into a nest.  It was very theraputic to cut, cut, cut, cut, cut..............

Altered Book #5 - Sleeping Memories

This was an old embossed scrapbook.  I cut a window out of it and embedded an original watercolor paintng on paper and some embossed paper (gold).   I've seen some really beautiful old scrapbooks/photoalbums for sale on Ebay - I keep hoping to snag one cheap. 

Altered Book #4 A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf Homage

This was a little board book that I skinned and painted a landscape in watercolor.  I glued some pages together and cutout a window then embedded a picture of one of my favorite writers Virginia Woolf.  Titled after her essay "A Room of One's Own".

Altered Book #3 An Interpretation of Dreams

Here is a vintage copy of Sigmund Freuds 'Interpretation of Dreams' book. I found this book at a book sale-I remember reading it 20 some years ago...

I thought it would be interesting to alter this book because I often draw a connection between dreams and art. I sometimes dream of images then use the images in my paintings. I embedded a small watercolor painting of one such recurrent dream into a niche cut out of this book.

I used candle wax to seal the book shut- Freudian symbolism of the subconscious mind being closed to our consciousness.

Altered Book #2 - A Little Birdie Told Her

Here is an 75 year old hymnal, heavy, lovely and worn. It has an aged church smell. It's a familiar smell, but I can't place which church. I thought about how many hands held this hymnal over many years, singing voices now silent. I glued the pages together and closed it forever. Before that I carved a niche for a small painting.

I painted a small painting on wood of a woman with a bird on her shoulder. The wood is just a sliver of a 2 x4 with acrylic paint. I used the grain of the wood to accentuate the details. I pushed the painting into the niche with some glue.

I purchase several of these old retired hymnals with the intention of giving them a second life as art. I will post some others later...