Friday, August 9, 2013

Former Tucsonan Has a Warped Way of Using Old Books

Posted By on Fri, Aug 9, 2013 at 3:16 PM

Today, in cool things found on the Internet, artist Andrew Hayes has created a new use for old books: damn wicked metal sculpture.

According to Hayes, his metal work allows for the books that he's repurposed to tell "a new story":

The book is a seductive object to hold and smell and run your fingers through. I am drawn to books for many reasons; however, the content of the book does not enter my work. The pages allow me to achieve a form, surface, and texture that are appealing to me. The book as an object is full of fact and story. I take my sensory appreciation for the book as a material and employ the use of metal to create a new form, and hopefully a new story.

Currently based in Portland, Hayes was born in Tucson and studied at Northern Arizona University before taking his talents to the Pacific Northwest (and apparently further proving that there is some sort of weird, unspoken pipeline between Portland and Tucson).

While I'm something of a bibliophile (the kind of person that becomes somewhat uncomfortable when I enter a home without a bookshelf), there's no way to deny that this is an amazing use of old, discarded, sadly unloved books — and also, outdated encyclopedias and dictionaries, like the image to the right portrays.

Check out more on Hayes over at his website.


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