From Stone is Not Cold, Czech illustrator Miroslav Šašek’s playful vintage children’s illustrations of classical sculptures from London, Rome and the Vatican. The book was published in 1961, but Brain Pickings recently wrote a great little article on Šašek’s clever, beautiful work here.
I love books. I collect books because I find beauty in both their covers and the knowledge that rests between them. Some novels, when it comes to material, are pure works of art - the “Great American Novels,” etc. But I never considered encyclopedias. Useful sources of information, sure, but not exactly “beautiful.” However, English-based artist Alexander Korzer-Robinson has forced me to reevaluate my opinion.
Robinson turns encyclopedias into fascinating paper sculptures, by cutting into their pages and exposing choice illustrations. This process ultimately results in fantastical works of, well, art - art that seem to harken back to an older time. From his website:
Through my work in the tradition of collage I am pursuing the very personal obsession of creating narrative scenarios in small format. Using antiquarian books, makes the work at the same time an exploration and a deconstruction of nostalgia.
We create our own past from fragments of reality in a process that combines the willful aspects of remembering and forgetting with the coincidental and unconscious. On a general level, I aim to illustrate this process that forms our inner landscape.
Though it appears the process of making these “book sculptures” should be difficult and lengthy, Robinson has created dozens of them, all beautiful, each one telling its own story (though some imagination is required to follow the plot). You can see more examples of his work on his website.
(photo from My Modern Met)
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