The library is to a book, like a museum is to a work of art. In the library, books are cataloged, placed upon shelves with care, gently opened, adored and essentially worshipped as the relics of the history of human storytelling they are. Which is why it seemed blasphemously counterintuitive to watch a handful of women in a room at the back of the Elizabeth Taber Library taking scissors to books and appearing to be torturing their pages with threaded needles, hole punchers, and globs of glue.
Leading this small group of seeming book sadists on the evening of Tuesday, December 3, was Marion resident and artist Jessica Harris. The event was called “Book Crafts for Adults,” and it was part of the library’s diverse winter programming lineup. However, at the top of the agenda wasn’t the butchering of books with implements of destruction; these women were there to create.
The spread of craft paper, ribbons, clips, lace, bags of fabric scraps, scissors, glue bottles, and piles of textured paper products across the table was the artistic equivalent of the Big Bang.
The great artist Pablo Picasso once said: “Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction.” And when making unique book art out of recycling books, a book must die before a new one can be born.
“The really great thing about book art is that it’s really accessible and anyone can do it,” said Harris.
Step one to making a unique piece of individualized ‘biblioart’ is to select a hardcover book to act as the shell for an altogether brand-new book or journal. Using vintage images, aged paper, graph paper, and even aged ledger paper, sheets are folded and attached together to make a “signature,” essentially a chapter, so to speak, of pages that are fastened in between the two covers of the base book. Other old books – ones that no one ever checks out from the library anymore and have been “withdrawn” from the catalog and never resold during any of the ensuing book fairs – are used to cut out unique illustrations, maps, graphs, photos, or text to decorate the art book, which is either a themed art book, travel journal, personal memento, or just about anything the book artist desires.
Many of the finished books Harris brought with her were holiday-themed, like elaborate Christmas cards of sorts. Others had a vintage feel to them, an air of whimsy, and the spirit of having been handmade simply for the sake of making art.
“There’s no rules,” said Harris, guiding the participants as they selected bits and bobs for their creations unfolding before them. “That’s the beautiful thing about this; it can be anything you want it to be.”
The art book concept isn’t something Harris suddenly one day thought up, she said.
“It was kind of an evolution, I guess, of things,” said Harris.
Harris volunteered her time to the library event and brought with her an abundance of supplies that she donated for the occasion. Much of what she had with her, one participant pointed out, people might think one would want to throw away – but like Harris says, anything can be used as materials in an art book. She sometimes even saves the envelopes she receives in her junk mail.
“There’s a whole ‘junk journal’ community out there,” said Harris.
Harris spent the rest of the evening demonstrating how to make a “pamphlet stitch,” a “floating spine,” and helped troubleshoot as questions came up.
Next at the Taber Library is Harry Potter drop-in crafts on December 11-12, which is an all-day activity open to all.
On December 19 from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm, come to the library for a holiday cookie swap. Bring two-dozen cookies and a recipe to share to create a tasty grab bag of holiday cookies for the house or for a gift.
On December 31, the library will host a special New Year’s Eve party for the younger kids who can’t stay up late enough for the official countdown. The party is from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm over in the children’s department.
The Elizabeth Taber Library is located at 8 Spring Street in the center of Marion.
By Jean Perry