Reading Copy Book Blog

A week or so ago my boyfriend told me our plans for the day were a surprise, but that he was sure it was so up my alley it was practically made for me – and he was right. We went to the Bellevue Arts Museum in, well, Bellevue, and saw their current exhibition called The Book Borrowers.

The exhibit showcases the work of artists who, through various techniques and transformations, have created sculptures, objets d’arts from books. There was a copy of Shel Silverstein’s beloved book The Giving Tree in which the tree had been painstakingly carved and brought forward to cast its own shadow: a three-dimensional paper tree. The detail and intricate lines were amazing.

There was a half prone figure created from books. Encylopedias and phone books, sandblasted into the appearance of stone, became stumps, mountains, a replica of the grand canyon. Some works were minute, microcosmic, with moving parts (I had a very hard time keeping my hands to myself). Some were abstract and strange, clearly intending a subtext beyond form or function. Some were so amibitious their completion amazed me. But all began with the humble book, printed words and pictures on paper, and brought from it something new.

From the web site:

A book can be many things: an object, a source of knowledge, a cultural artifact or an idea. From each volume, layers of meaning and subtext can be mined, not only from the words and images inside, but from the subtle design elements, the materiality of its pages and spine, and its symbolic value as a recorder of human evolution. For 550 years, the printed page has been our primary means of communication, though it is steadily being overtaken in the digital age.

The Book Borrowers highlights 31 works from locally, nationally and internationally renowned contemporary artists transforming books into sculptural works. Pieces in the exhibition explore the book’s inherent qualities and reflect upon this unique juncture in time. Manhattan White Pages turned into the head of Buddha, laser engraved volumes poignantly dissected, stacks of encyclopedias sandblasted into monumental landscapes – the works in this exhibition reveal new and unexpected layers of meaning that go beyond the book as a source of information and offer a fresh look at its place in an increasingly digitally oriented world. The Book Borrowers is both a nostalgic homage to the book and a reflection on our current progression beyond it.

The second paragraph was printed on one of the walls of the exhibit, and I was surprised to find that while I was fascinated by it, it also made me feel very melancholy. The idea of print media ceasing to exist, or being something for specialty collectors (like music on vinyl now) rather than the norm is heartbreaking to me. I love books. I love the weight of them, the feel. I love the softness of the pages of an old, old paperback. I love the thin ribbon bookmark that comes in some hardcovers. I love when there’s a blank, creamy page, empty save for the author’s dedication. I love a stack of books next to my bed, precarious, teetering, enticing. I love a book that has been read in the bath, and the way its pages become wavy and crimped, like a cocker spaniel’s ears. The Book Borrowers exhibit was comforting in that it showed the book will always be valuable, always be art, even if its form changes. The obvious dedication, time and skill that the artists put into each piece suggested reverie and respect. Books will always be loved. But the sense of loss at the words on the wall was real.

The part that devastates me perhaps most of all is the idea of losing that bookstore smell. I don’t believe it will ever come to that entirely, and if it does it is a long way off, but the notion was jarring. The smell of new bookstores is different from used bookstores, is different from libraries, is different from antiquarian collections, but they all have the musty, spicy, underlying smell of paper at their root, and my nose knows nothing better. I have difficulty imagining walking into an e-reader factory, closing my eyes, inhaling and smiling.

*Exhibition ends June 14th, so if you’re in the Seattle area and want to view it, now’s the time!