ALtered ARt/ Altered Books

[sweetnpetite]

Has anyone heard of this 'trend' or style or whatever it is?

what can you tell me about it? what do you think about it? and finally does this sound like something you would be interested in?

Oppinions please.

 

[Guest]

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[sweetnpetite]

here's the best link I could find about it:

http://www.creativity-portal.com/howto/artscrafts/altered.books.html

If anybody else has any good links, please post them

I think I'm starting to understand the altered book thing (I don't think I could do it though, I love my books too much) but am wondering about other types of altered art.

It sounds sort of fascinating, but I'm just not sure if I totally grasp the concept and stuff.

 

[sweetnpetite]

HOW TO ALTER A BOOK?
1. Pick out a book.
This might be one around your house that's seen better days, a book at a local chain store that they're selling for a dollar on clearance, or one at a garage sale that's about the right size for what you want to do. I would suggest, at least at first, that the book be hardcover. Otherwise it has a tendency to fall apart, and if you aren't prepared to rebind it somehow, it can be disappointing. Pick it by the title, by some content you like, or by the illustrations. Just pick one.

2. Grab a paintbrush.
This is the hardest part, so we'll do it quick. Just open it to a random page, and cover it with paint. Keep some words unpainted or give it a design or texture -- whatever you want to do. But just do it. Taking that first step and altering your first page will make the rest of it easier.

3. Do whatever you want to do.
Cut a page out and replace it with one of your own. Or collage over the page. Add in fold-out pages. Use rubber stamps or paint, decoupage or other embellishments. Drill holes in it or make a diorama in it by cutting out a window in bunches of pages. Weave things through holes in the pages, or put together found-word poetry on various pages.

There are no rules. This is a hard concept for people who think that everything has to have a process with a beginning and an end and steps inbetween, but it's really true. There ARE no rules.

4. Stop when you're done.
If that's one page, fine. If that's all the pages, it's also fine. You may find that you have to remove some pages to get the thing to close. Good. Do that. Or don't, and add a clasp to the cover so you can keep it closed when you want to.

Don't worry about making a mistake, either. There are no mistakes. Every mistake can be either a) turned into something else, b) collaged or pasted over, or c) ripped out. There are no mistakes because there are no rules.

(If you make one, I'd love to see it. Email me for my address.)

5. (optional) Get other people involved.
If you join the AlteredBooks list @ yahoogroups.com, there are more than a thousand people who share your (inevitable) enthusiasm just waiting to work in your book. Many of them are fabulous artists that will really enhance your book with their creativity, in fact.

Alternately, you could pass the book around to your friends, letting them each alter a page or two of their own, which makes the project more personal.

And, as if that's not enough, you can always grab a copy of the HOW TO ALTER A BOOK zine that I put out a few months back, which has fourteen actual techniques for altering your own books into pieces of amazingly unique A R T! (It's available again now.)

Whatever you do, have fun.
After all, fun and self-expression are what art is all about.

http://moderngypsy.com/green/alteredpage/how.html

 

[sweetnpetite]

so what I'm gathering about altered art is that it's about decopaging and collage-ing everything in site. I can get down with that.

But is that basically correct?

Anyone????

 

[kendo1]

Cut and paste.
Is it really art?
Sorry, not my taste. But what do I know.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Cut and paste.
Is it really art?
Sorry, not my taste. But what do I know.

Sure, why not. Puting this there and that here. Is it any different from painting? [taking the paint out of the tube and rearanging it on the canvas?]

I'm all for any creative expression. doesn't matter really if you want to call it art or not. It's a technique, or group of techniques. You can do with it as you will.

In Fried Green Tomatoes, Ninnie Threadgood said that she couldn't have a garden in the hospital she was staying in, so she made her own by pasting flowers on her wall. I would think that would qualify as 'altered art' since she created a garden out of pre-made images. And I would think it would qualify as art because she expressed herself and created a desirable environment.

 

[kendo1]

Exactly.
Like I said-What do I know?
I know what I like when I see it, childish but true.

Does the art provoke a reaction in the viewer?

I don't like artists taking the piss, as in the recent exhibitions in the Tate Modern.

 

[neonlyte]

Altered Book Depends whose doing the production, this 'book' was in a recent exhibition I co-organised. Cut and Paste it isn't.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Somehow, I can't imagine myself doing anything even remotely like this:

Altered book art combines several types of artistic techniques into one unique art form. Starting with a book base, the artist tears away pages and then adds their own creative expressions through rubber stamping, scrapping, collage, photomontage, and writing.

Within this collection of altered book resources you'll find articles, projects, and Web sites that explain the altered book process, archiving suggestions; and those that share free fun tips, techniques, and tutorials for your creative altered book and other altered projects.


If I were to take an old book off the shelf, or buy one at a second-hand store, paint over parts or all of some pages, print out some of my own smut and glue it over some pages, tear out some pages, tear out parts of some pages, glue stickers over some pages, and do whatever else I might think of, I would just have a mutilated book. The defination of art being as broad as it is, some might regard the transformed book as art, but I wouldn't.

If I were to do something of this sort, I might print out some of my smutty stories, probably keeping them in a series of some kind, and either include them in a loose-leaf notebook or get some book binding equipment and supplies and bind them into a hard-cover volume. I might get a piece of posterboard and make a collage of some kind, using pictures from magazines or other sources. If I were to do something like that, I could say I have a piece of art that I had produced, which would be better than a mutilated book.

 

[kendo1]

My sentiments entirely, Box.
Seems like sacrilage, The Night of the Burning Books.

 

[Guest]

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[McKenna]

I agree with dark-glasses; it's maybe not so much art as it is self-expression.

I got into altered art last year, and I gotta say I love it. I approached it with the same cynicism as some of you, thinking it sacrilege to ruin a perfectly good book for the sake of art, but I got over it. For one, there are millions of books that remain on shelves, read once and never touched again. If you can't look at it any other way, look at it as recycling a resource.

The book I chose to alter was "Women Who Run with the Wolves." It took a couple of hours perusng a second hand book store to find the one that spoke to me, but when I did find it, I knew it was the one. I paid less that $5 for it; I don't believe in paying more than that for a book I'm only going to alter. Lots of books can be found 4 for a dollar at yard sales.

Some folks alter books without any regard to the text within; others choose bits and pieces of the text to highlight or expound upon, creating pictures and art from a sentence or two. It's up to the person altering the book.

With my book, the text was too powerful to be ignored. It's a work in progress, it's something I do when I feel the need to express what's going on in my life. It's an outlet for creative and emotional energy. It's not for everyone, and certainly not for those who can't get past the "cut and paste" mentality or the thought of writing in or recycling a book.

I'll see if I can't post some pictures of the pages I've done in my book. If there are any other altered book artists out there, PM me! It might be fun to do a book exchange so we can do a page in each other's books.

 

[McKenna]

One more picture....

 

[Guest]

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[Guest]

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[neonlyte]

McKenna,
Thanks for posting those, they are, in my opinion, significantly removed from the 'cut and paste' approach I've seen from some examples.

The image I posted is a commissioned work by an Irish artist for an exhibition I co-organised in September, it is at the other end of the 'altered book' spectrum, being specially printed and altered for the show. I understand from the Gallery it has been a 'big hit' with the schools touring the exhibition. We have 25 schools working up projects around the theme of the exhibition with their own Gallery show in January, I can't wait to see what they come up with.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Cut and paste.
Is it really art?
Sorry, not my taste. But what do I know.

It's an art process, just as painting on canvas, or carving wood, or drawing on paper is.
Like all processes, it can be a craft, or an art. It depends on the individual.
(edited to say) Nothing like re-stating the obvious!

 

[oggbashan]

I recommend Reader's Digest Condensed Books for this treatment. They have NO resale value.

I think Laurence Sterne did it first with 'Tristram Shandy'.

Og

 

[sweetnpetite]

My sentiments entirely, Box.
Seems like sacrilage, The Night of the Burning Books.

That's what I kinda thought. However:

WHY ALTER A BOOK?
Why not?

One of the things that I hear from people a lot is, "Why do you ruin your books?"

Now, aside from the obvious argument about art and culture being valid forms of expression, et cetera, it's important to mention: Nobody is ruining anything.

Most AB artists find their books at tag sales, library closeouts, and remainder tables, where, if they aren't purchased, they will likely end up as landfill material. By taking these books and transforming them into something that's an expression for the artist and a joy for the viewer, there is no "ruining" going on.

The problem is that most of us, at one time or another, have come to think of books as sacred objects, unalterable and inviolate. And while this is true, the act of saving a book from a fate worse than death seems to me to be somewhat noble.

Getting off the high horse, this is fun. Since there are no rules, you're able to fully express your creativity however you feel like it on that day. Feel like cutting something out? Do it. Feel like pasting things in or making a collage? Fine. Feel like painting over everything and making a book into your personal journal? Great! The point is, you're giving a new life to a book that may have otherwise just sat on a shelf, unused, or may have been tossed into a trash bin.

http://moderngypsy.com/green/alteredpage/why.html

 

[Guest]

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[sweetnpetite]

I recommend Reader's Digest Condensed Books for this treatment. They have NO resale value.

I think Laurence Sterne did it first with 'Tristram Shandy'.

Og

They always have them free at the library book sale here. That's a good idea ogg, because the material itself is good quality- sturdy. They are really gonna hold up.

It seems like theyed make really cool "cut out" picture frames too, properly embelleshed.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Telephone book

Before I ever heard of this 'altered art' I had the idea to use an old telephone book as something a journal/scrapbook- because it's a really cheap way to get a book of that size I figured cut out a couple of pages throughout and glue the stuff I wanted onto the page (mainly computer printouts, designed on my works document program to resemble caligraphy, possibly with additional embelishments)

Probably not "art" or anything, just something for me personally, but I guess it's kind of the same idea.

 

[sweetnpetite]

further musings.

Musical remixes are kind of altered art too aren't they? I mean, the same general principal. In highschool, I made a sort of re-mix tape using popular music of the time and messeges that had been left on my answering machine. I thought (still think) it was pretty cool, even though it might not have a lot of interest to anyone else.

I also have some calloges I made out of magazine ads that I liked, because it was told just having the pictures taped to the wall was a firehazard. I glued then on to posterboard and then drew and colored around them to emphasize my theme. If I get a chance I'll take a pic and post them. They are getting old, but I don't have the heart to toss them.

I think I'm really into the concept of this, but I most need to learn about good products and tools to use to do it 'right.' (You know, so it lasts and all.)

 

[woodnymph_O]

well wheter art or not, I am working on a book now, ty sweet. It's gonna be a gift for the BF and I am having a ball. For those who think art has to start from scratch you might want to check out the reborn dolls, I almost bought a lovely demon child last month on ebay. I think art is what you make it. And if it gives you joy do it. This is giving me alot of joy, as I create personal poems from what is on the pages of my book.

this was an old book on my shelf that has been unread for years now, and honestly was about ready for the landfill, but being of the fantasy genre gives alot of nice words to work with. Now I wish I had an old hard back erotica to work with for Valentines day.
that would be fun