Photographer Cara Barer has self-published a “photography picture book with a tale of the demise of the printed word as we know it.” On her website she writes about the process of making her book art:
I realized I owned many books that were no longer of use to me, or for that matter, anyone else. Would I ever need “Windows 95?” After soaking it in the bathtub for a few hours, it had a new shape and purpose….Half a century ago, students researched at home with the family set of encyclopedias, or took a trip to the library to find needed information. Now, owning a computer, and connecting to the internet gives a student the ability to complete a research paper without ever going near a library. I have fully embraced that technology, and would not want to be without it, but, I also fear that it is rapidly leading us to rely less and less on the reference books common in the last two centuries…With the discarded books that I have acquired, I am attempting to blur the line between objects, sculpture, and photography.
You can see a preview of the book here and see larger versions of the photographs of her bookworks here.
Elegant and decadent.