Found in Jail Libraries

This is interesting: a flickr set of photographs of drawings and writings found in books in jails in Wisconsin.

I've never found such artwork in my library's books, but I have been keeping all the scraps of paper and other miscellaneous debris I find around the library. I've wanted to display them all somehow, because they are interesting, but I just haven't figured out how to do it. A flickr set might be the best way - look for that in an upcoming (but not immediate future) post.

This was found via BoingBoing.

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Altered Books Art on Display

For those in the Portland, ME area, here's an art display worth checking out:

Aaron T Stephan/The Problem with Ladders
July 25th through September 8, 2007
Artist Reception, Friday, August 3, 5-8 PM
Whitney Art Works
492 Congress Street
Portland, ME 04101

Usually, altered book art involves somehow changing the appearance of individual books. In this show, the artist used books to build things - most impressively, a huge structure. The photographs are the gallery's website are pretty impressive.

Thanks for passing this along, Kristin.

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Used Books into Altered Books

We've already looked at what people can do with old or unused books, both for fun and profit.

But for those of you who aren't interested in furniture or fundraising, then the art of Altered Books might be appealing (what are altered books?).

It is sometimes gut-wrenching to see books mutilated like this, but it can still be fascinating. The photo featured here is one of my favorite books, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I like the way the story is depicted, and the creativity and craft is amazing, but it does make me sad that this is one less copy of the story that can be read.

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