Cara Barer
I realized I owned many books that were no longer of use to me, or for that matter, anyone else. Would I ever need “Windows 95?” After soaking it in the bathtub for a few hours, it had a new shape and purpose. Half Price Books became a regular haunt, and an abandoned house gave me a set of outdated reference books, complete with mold and neglect. Each book tells me how to begin according to its size, type of paper, and sometimes contents.
website
Mary Strausser wrote:
Well there is a sort of beauty in the images but on another level there is something disturbing about them as well.Like finding artfullness in mangled corpses. I tend to have relationships with books.Usefullness or non usefullness is sort of cold blooded.
Posted on 11-Apr-07 at 7:51 am | Permalink
claire wrote:
Mangled corpses? Hmm… Then I guess you would just about pass out if you saw what Georgia Russell does to them.
http://www.englandgallery.com/RUSSELL_Georgia.htm
Posted on 11-Apr-07 at 3:28 pm | Permalink
Tracy wrote:
CAra,
These are very nice images. Like you I have tremendous respect for books. Using out of date and context books for art makes great sense. In our times books have physically evolved as the primaray reservoir for knowledge to the secondary. As the digital age contimues we will have much more material for this genera of work.
I did a few similar pieces with books a few years ago:
http://www.tracyhicks.com/scbook.htm
These started with a series of books I found on genetics written prior to WWII that cast people of color as less, In my view those books were much better salt cured like a ham.
Tracy
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 7:41 am | Permalink
Pat Kramberg wrote:
A corpse?? Yes, if you consider “the death” of a book. I choose to see the lovely sculptures formed in these photographs which in a sense, gives the book a new life and purpose.
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 11:15 am | Permalink
Cara Barer wrote:
Happy to disturb you, Mary. Actually, my temperature usually remains at 98.6.
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 11:17 am | Permalink
Lynn Rich wrote:
I especially like the book series, they appear to be in a state of flux just as the way we attain information these days. I love the introduction of color into the series.
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 1:59 pm | Permalink
JT wrote:
WOW! Awesome pictures on a really cool site!
Posted on 12-Apr-07 at 4:55 pm | Permalink
Mary Strausser wrote:
I’m just sentimental I guess. It does seem like the death of a book.
Posted on 13-Apr-07 at 6:37 am | Permalink
B wrote:
Impressive, but vaguely creepy. Doubly so for Georgia Russell’s work linked to by claire.
Posted on 13-Apr-07 at 8:46 pm | Permalink
M. Bouffant wrote:
Oh, you visual artists with your horrible attitude toward the written word. Have you no shame? It’s the book itself that matters, not what its text may be.
Posted on 14-Apr-07 at 6:35 pm | Permalink
Eric wrote:
I have to agree with those expressing discomfort at seeing books destroyed. Certainly I find arguments that the contents of the books are distasteful to be highly unpersuasive. I’m reminded of the quotation “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings.”
BUT for books that can persuasively be argued to be so old and out of date that no one will ever want them for any kind of reading or research…maybe a phone book from 1990…in those cases I’m a little less discomfited.
Still, I’d be happiest if you photocopied the books’ contents first if they’re any chance you’d be destroying unreproducible information.
Posted on 14-Apr-07 at 7:12 pm | Permalink
Randal Petrick wrote:
Love the book series. As someone who is an owner of a couple of your works it is wonderful to see you get the attention deserved!
Posted on 18-Apr-07 at 9:10 am | Permalink
Cara Barer wrote:
To “Boofaunt”
Shame? Ha! Thank you for making my point.
It’s the book itself that matters, not what its text may be.
Posted on 18-Apr-07 at 6:44 pm | Permalink
jeffrey wrote:
The book series reflects compositional excellence while simultaneously raising questions about the collection and transfer of information. Wonderful series!
Posted on 19-Apr-07 at 8:23 pm | Permalink