Book Autopsy

Maybe you are a book lover like I am?  I received a Kindle for a gift a couple years ago and it took me awhile to try it out, I was afraid to give up all of the things about books that I love.  I love the covers, the way they smell, the satisfaction from turning the page, the way they look in a library or on a shelf.  When I began reading things on my Kindle it made the reading easier, but I still missed the appearance and smell of my books.  I have become fascinated with repurposing books and creating them into art!  One of my more recent projects was this Book Autopsy. 

Supplies

Book (a book that contains a lot of pictures that would be good for layering, but thick enough to display a shadow box effect.)

Exacto knife or box knife

Glue

Scissors

Pencil

Step One

For this project you will need a hardbound book with a lot of pictures that is fairly thick.  Finding the perfect book for this project is the most challenging part.  I chose to use a children’s copy of Moby Dick because the images had strong lines and I liked that they were black and white, also there were several good images to choose from. 

Step Two

After selecting your book begin going through the pages looking for images you think would be good to cut out.  When you find these images go ahead and tear out the entire page.  You will find that because you will be adding the images back in, the thickness of the book will remain adequate.  Keep in mind that you can only fit so many images into your shell, so don’t be overzealous, but do be a little generous.  Once you have torn out the pages, cut out your images and place them in a pile. 

Step Three

With your images set aside, open the front cover of your book.  Draw an outline of the whole that you want to cut out for the inside.  Remember to leave room on each side so that you have a place to glue your pictures to.  I suggest leaving at least a half an inch.  You don’t want your gutters so shallow that the pages rip. 

Step Four

Very carefully begin tracing along the penciled lines with your exacto knife or box cuter.  Remove a few layers at a time and continue until you have eliminated the middle of all of the pages.  You can leave a few in the back depending on how thick your book is and what you want as your main backdrop. 

Step Five

After you have cut out all of the inside pages trace a box with your pencil on the inside of the front cover.  You are going to use this as your guideline for the front frame.  I made my front frame smaller than my pages so that the pages didn’t show from the outside. 

Step Six

Once you have cut out the cover begin arranging your images inside places pages between them to create a layered effect.  Keep in mind that it is fun to have images coming out of the side and tops of the pages as well. 

Step Seven

Once you have decided the way you want your images to look, glue them into place. 

Step Eight

If you want for a finishing touch you can paint the glue onto the outer edge of the pages to hold them all together.  Place a weight on the book until it dries so that the pages remain held together.