Custom Altered Book
Cover
Matches were a constant and obvious motif. The "tattoo" matchbook
represented the indelible mark made by the relationship. It was pasted on an
interior page, with openings from the cover to the matchbook. The frame on
the cover was filled with transparent film. The small text on the cover is the
repetition of the common matchbook warning: "Close cover before striking."
The original of the book is "Bullet Heart", by Michael Doane. The title
approximated my feelings at the time, and the story took place in South
Dakota, a significant location.
This book may contain the most mixed of mixed media I've ever used on a
single project.
Inside front cover
The library tag, with smaller tags reading "date due" were the times when we met in
person, so few when compared with our constant communication online. The cranes
on the paper represent the lifetime mating habit of that bird, or more simply,
soulmates. The content page is taken from an old book about shoe manufacturing,
with oddly pertinent words highlighted such as "masks," "skins," and "fire". "Burn This
Mr. Phelps" refers to the TV show "Mission Impossible."
Page 2
This represents the nature of our communication -- mechanical, fabricated of wires in
boxes, composed of binary code. Clockwise from upper left: Wood burning on
popsicle stick reads "Words of wisdom - where there is smoke there is fire," tangled
in a wire human figure holding the word "Gone," revealed original text reads "wood
smoke," inverted stamp image reads "Mouths without minds," miscellaneous
computer shards, letter beads with I's and O's of binary code, the whole and shredded
corrugated board was the imprecision of the communication, the poem on yellow
reads, "Our voices words spill into the wire into the void gone wires and moths rising
with wing noises in the ether," A page of computer code and an English-Latin
dictionary highlighting the definition "Lares - household gods." Scattered throughout
are words on lables and magnets reading "void" "fire" and "eyes."
Page 4
This is a softer, less anguished page, about the times we actually met. The left page
is topped with a Photoshop-altered photograph of a nude woman laying on and
covered with roses. Next to it are strips of distressed paper stitched to the page. The
page is covered with dictionary excerpts, for the words "subrogate" and "sub rosa"
alternating with rose-illustrated paper. The lable reads, "Blue Roses." Most of the
page is covered with translucent parchement. A small post card straddles the pages.
On the right is a poem titled: "Early February, Subrosa," too long to duplicate here.
That page is mostly covered with rose-patterned vellum. On the right is another
stitched patch with Chagall painting of a couple embracing, under another exerpt from
a Latin-English dictionary highlighting the words, "subpoena: under a penalty," "Sub
rosa: under the rose, secretly" and "sub silentio: in silence."
Page 5
This page is fairly obvious - a collage of matchbook covers, the title, the last window
page revealing the tattoo matchbook, and images of apples, the forbidden fruit. A
burned match is affixed over the last window on the left. Revealed text includes the
words, "firewater," "white smoke out the window," "smoked," and "'Strike this skin,'
Walking Horse said, 'and it will not make a sound.'"
Page 6
This and the next page are preoccupied with images of holiness contrasted with text.
In Photoshop, printed on photo paper and vellum, I collaged repeated and altered
photographs of myself in costume (when I played the part of a nun in an opera),
overlaid by a crucifixion and the Virgin Mary's face. Other images of Mary and the
Spanish words for "joy" and "miracles" are framed, along with an embossed image of
Andy Warhol, the source of the paraphrased quote along the bottom, "In the future,
every nun will be famous ..." (continued on next page). Revealed text from the original
book reads in part, "You can't hide in a prairie" "There were knots in her that couldn't
be undone" "feel love in her bones" and "Even the homely nun she knew at the
mission school said love was the greatest of the virtues" (with the words "love" and
"nun" highlighted with dimensional resin).
- Shop Everything Else - Gallery - Gallery Altered Books 1 -Gallery Altered Books 2 - Gallery Altered
Books 3 - Gallery Altered Books 4 - Gallery Shrines 1 - Gallery Shrines 2 - Gallery Shrines 3 - Gallery
Shrines 4 - Gallery Wedding Supplies - Gallery Everything Else - About The Artist - Links - Contact - What
is Altered Art? - What is Assemblage Art? - Site Map - Images 1 - Images 2 - Images 3 - Images 4 -
Images 5 - Images 6 - Images 7 - Images 8 - Images 9 - Images 10 - Images 11 - Images 12 - Images 13
- Images 14 - Images 15 - Images 16 - Images 17 - Images 18 - Images 19 - Images 20
Ventura, CA
Participatory Altered Art and Assemblage
altered art - altered books - shrines - altars - devotional objects - custom altered art - scrapbook embellishments - altered art
embellishments - personalized altered art - wedding invitations - wedding scrapbooks - wedding favors - altered art journals -
personalized stationery - note cards - greeting cards - ATCs - Shop Custom Book Art or Altered Books Artist Store: Buy Altared
Books Custom Altered Art & Gifts Personal Journal Guest Book Guestbooks Custom Scrapbook Albums Gallery of book art or
altered books altered art and “altared art” memory artworks from found objects, alternative themes and styles, custom made,
gifts, scrapbooks, personal journals, journal, custom memorials, unique altered book. Give a unique gift, personalized