Altered books and book sculpture

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Comment by Sheila Jonah on September 10, 2009 at 2:15am

Making lots of cool books - see my latest on exhibition in Vancouver.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleanteen/3678161699/

Comment by Robert Heather on August 21, 2009 at 6:15pm

Recent article in Melbourne newspaper about altered books and Craft Hatch market this weekend.

Comment by Robert Heather on July 29, 2009 at 1:06pm

Has anyone seen any interesting exhibitions of altered books recently?

Comment by Alexander Korzer-Robinson on April 20, 2009 at 11:00pm

Here is a little gift from me to say hello to the group:
To all of you who are altering books by cutting into them, or anyone who is cutting up a lot of paper. It took me quite sometime to find the right cutting tools. At first i used x-acto knives, which are fine, but kind of expensive if you want to have a sharp blade all the time. Then I used surgical scalpels, which really didn"t work for me, too much wobbling around when you apply some pressure, as the blades are normally too long and the handle doesn't give you a good grip.

Luckily I have found a tool that is perfect for our work. Its from a Japanese manufactorer called Olfa. They have a wide range of cutting tools, but the one i find best is called Olfa AK-3. It is the smaller one of their art knives. It comes with 30 replacement blades (which is about what i go through in one week), but you can buy those replacement blades separately in packs of 30 and they come to about 3.50 GBP. The blades have a 30 degree angle, but are relatively short, so there is no "wobbling" when you apply pressure.
They are available in most countries, just do a google search on "Olfa ak-3".

Comment by Sally Canzoneri on March 18, 2009 at 1:16pm

Joanne,

Under American copyright law, you do not have a problem if you are using the actual books and other printed materials, because such use falls under the "first use" doctrine. You own the book, so you can do whatever you want with it. (If you think about this, it makes sense; you wouldn't worry about the copyright of a patterned paper or fabric you bought to use in a piece.)

I think you could have a problem if you sold photos you took of the resulting artwork, because then there might be an argument that the photograph is a derivative work, but I would think that photos distributed free to promote your own piece would not likely be a problem.

Of course, if the works are in the public domain, you have no problems.

However, I can't speak to the issue of the moral rights of the original artist (say of a map you used) under European law. My understanding is that these are different than in America.

I can give you some good sites on American copyright law -- one being the US copyright Office. I would assume there are similar sources on UK law. Try checking sites of UK law schools and the agency that administers the copyright law there.

One hint, regarding maps (and other things): Unlike Britain, where the Crown holds copyright to government publications, all US government publications are in the public domain. And a lot of PD stuff is available at the Library of Congress web site. The US Geological Survey did lovely maps of the whole US. One can buy them in stores here (hikers like them) and you can probably find them on the web somewhere.

Comment by Joanne B Kaar on March 11, 2009 at 7:52pm

Does anyone have any info about copyright when re-using books, leaflletts, maps and other printed matter?
What can we use in the UK??? Is it ok to then take photographts of the resulting artwork then publish in?
J

Comment by Robert Heather on October 16, 2008 at 12:19pm

If you go to the book Arts List you can follow a very long discussion thread about book arts and bok sculpture which starts here.

Comment by Robert Heather on October 16, 2008 at 12:17pm

Interviews with altered book artist / sculptir Brian Dettmer here and here

Comment by Robert Heather on September 19, 2008 at 11:28am

Online interview with Nicholas Jones here.