Brian Dettmer, Book Dissections

I was at the Brooklyn flea market in the Williamsburg Savings Bank building the other day, looking through piles of prints for sale. I couldn't help but feel as though I was raking the coals after some book burning. All these wonderful antique books had been cut open because I assume you can make more money from the parts than from the sum.

Here's a guy who throws that on it's head. Brian Dettmer has been cutting apart books for years, yet they add up to a lot more once he's done with them.

Here's what he has to say about Book Dissections:

"In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the cover of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and other surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each page while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose a book’s hidden, fragmented memory. The completed pieces expose new relationships of a book’s internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception."