Bringing New Life To Old Books - Brilliant Book Art

by Diana Eid

Brian Dettmer is an artist that takes stories from the inside of books, and creates his own on the outside.

Brian has used many different types of books, such as old dictionaries, textbooks, history books, encyclopedias, comic books and atlases, as well as many other types of books. In carving away big pieces of these books, he transforms them into three-dimensional art that is astonishing.

“Old books, records, tapes, maps, and other media frequently fall into a realm that too much of today’s art occupies. Their intended role has decreased or deceased and they often exist simply as symbols of the ideas they represent rather than true conveyers of content. ... When an object's intended function is fleeting, the necessity for a new approach to its form and content arises,” states the artist.

Brian’s work has been shown all over the world in many art galleries. He tends to use mostly older non-fiction books, mainly because of the size, weight and overall feel of the book.

He uses a sharp knife and dissects these books from beginning to end. Carefully carving around images, he keeps carving until his resulting work ends up telling a story of its own.