Altered Form

Following on from attending the talk by Jukhee Kwon, book artist, at October Gallery I decided to engage with the experience of altering a book. Kwon cuts her pages. I decided to tear my pages from the outside edge towards the spine.

After just a few pages I was amazed to see and feel that the brittle yellow edged pages of the cheap paperback book had taken on a feather-like quality.

The act of tearing felt decisive and deliberate. I enjoyed being engaged with the book in a physical way. It became compulsive and I did the tearing in one session without a break.

 all images on this blog post are of me in the process of tearing pages of a paperback book

Kwon works with abandoned books. She does not work with books that she has owned and read or books in her native language. If she did she would be too close to the content. Whilst tearing the pages of my old paperback I found myself stopping to read the text and memories came back about the content and I half questioned why I was ripping up this book and not keeping it!

to see Jukhee Kwon's work click on this link fromthebooktothespace.blogspot.com
and to see her work at the October gallery: www.octobergallery.co.uk/artists/kwon