Altered Books

Okay, this post is really getting on the bandwagon. I went to the art-section of my favourite book-shop the other day and there was a whole shelf dedicated to making books, ideas for altered books etc etc. It does feel like a bit of an obsession amongst the craft-lovers. As I flicked through I thought that some were great -- really interesting and different, but most just hit that note of pretention and that feeling of trying-too-hard.I thought I'd show some of the ones that I really like, and make me want to try it out myself: 

Here I am looking at some artists who I think really do something a bit different and alter their books in a highly original way:

Jacqueline Rush Lee: Lorum Ipsum II

Jaqueline Rush Lee Ex Libris (2000)

Jacqueline Rush Lee: Endoskeleton (2000)

Jacqueline Rush Lee writes in her bio that she is inspired by everyday objects, materials and colours in her surrounding environment - particularly used books. I really like what she does with them. She's not scared to go quite far with her ideas. 

Brian Dettmer (2010)

Brian Dettmer Integrated Electronics (2008)

Brian Dettmer (2009)

Brian Dettmer is an artist from the United States who perform biopsies on books, mostly manuals. 

Jennifer Khoshbin Alice Knows

Jennifer Khoshbin You're a Liar

Jennifer Khoshbin places these in her portfolio under 'Manipulation', I like how she keep the original book and story but makes it into an artwork.

Isaak G. Salazar

Isaak G. Salazar

Isaak G. Salazar

Unfortunately I can't find the website of Salazar. I really like how he folds the pages rather than cutting them away. Slightly cheesy on the wordplay (he does 'Twilight' for Twilight), but beautifully done.

Alice in Wonderland: John Tenniel

I saw a program, The Beauty of Books, on the BBC the other day and it looked at illustration in nineteenth century England. One programme discussed two of my great loves:

• Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (or Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) 1865
• Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake (1947-1959)

At this the whole pack rose up...

Both of the authors did original illustrations for the books which are available in the British Library in London. I will do another blog post for Mervyn Peake as there is so much to say: he's such a wonderful writer and illustrator and his son (I believe) is publishing a series of his work with Peake's original illustrations. So another time for that. 

Twinkle twinkle little bat! How I wonder what your at!

Alice in Wonderland
So many illustrators have tackled this children's story: I can't remember the exact number it's one of the most illustrated books. I'm going to have to be absolutely honest and say that I've never seen any that are more than average when compared to JOHN TENNIEL's illustrations for the first edition. The are immediately recognizable.

The cat only grinned when it saw Alice

If you google John Tenniel there are a lot of tattoos on the back shoulder of the above illustration! That's a serious fan base... 
I think he was so effective because not only was he a very capable artist, but he had worked for Punch. For those that don't know, Punch was a British comic publication started in 1841. Tenniel worked for Punch as one of the main political cartoonists. In his illustrations you can see this with the emphasized features and personal jokes. 

They were standing under a tree

For interested collectors the original plates were found and 250 impressions made of each which you can but at the link below. As a collector of illustrations I'm definitely going to mark that down on my "Items of Desire" List. (Yes, I do have one!)

In the programme the presenter speculated how the ape, which can be seen above right, was a personal joke of Tenniel's. A joke surrounding all the discussion about Darwin in the period, alongside the extinction of the Dodo. 

Some links: 

Tenniel prints for sale : http://www.johntenniel.com/

Wikipedia link : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tenniel

Political illustrations: http://www.victorianweb.org/art/illustration/tenniel/political1.html

If you know any more links or interesting info about Tenniel I'd love to hear!