For his project ‘Altered Books’, American artist Andrew Hayes creates extraordinary sculptures made of old books. For these sculptures, Hayes employ a sculptural approach to the use of fabricated steel.
Hayes says:
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.
I don’t find this pretty or attractive and you’ve taken a book and just turned it into a bunch of paper in a shape the first two sentences where you say you don’t care about the content of a book suddenly make your art insignificant. Why not just use a bunch of paper and color it yourself I’m not take books that have written words. It’s an insult to the authors. I get it’s a modern art form that some may like but I just don’t understand the significance of saying using books as art they are no longer books as mentioned they just become a bunch of sheets of paper I don’t think any person would look at this and think oh yeah that’s a good way to use a book or repurpose a book It’s Paper now. Very sad. And as far as Modern Art I don’t see anybody buying this. A bunch of sheets of paper wrapped around sculptured metal or vice versa. I think it would be better if it was just the sculpture carved metal shapes.