Altered Books are a popular form of art used by assemblagists to create pieces of tangible, three-dimensional art from ordinary books. The idea behind book alteration is to transform the theme of a book, whether it be a children’s book about sharing, or an adult textbook designed to teach economics and risk management. Whatever the book, it is the artist’s intention to take this piece of literature and alter it through varied means in order to forge a piece of art that still represents the underlying theme of the book, but in a more creative and aesthetic way. In doing so the artist has “restated” the message of the book and done it in a way that appeals to multiple senses simultaneously. The book can be altered many different ways, using paper, gels, paints, other pieces of literature, tangible objects, and even fire. Techniques can range from burning pages and sewing to wintergreen and gel transfers, using painting techniques to grab the eye of the viewer. In my particular piece, I have taken a book on neurology and altered it to encompass a rustic, older
undertaking of what a primitive medical textbook would resemble. I have used tertiary as a main color component to give an antique finish to the piece, and I have also used and altered some famous images to give a new spin on older themes by past artisans. My intension was to create a piece that not only combined the ideas of the past, such as phrenology, with the present, as with my use of X-ray imaging, but I also wished to show that medicinal dogma and integrity transcends time and manifests itself in multiple facets.
