Working on an Altered Book Journal

click image to enlarge

Way back last July in began working on an altered book.  What's an altered book ?  Here's a good definition form Wikipedia:

An altered book is a form of mixed media artwork that changes a book from its original form into a different form, altering its appearance and/or meaning.

An altered book artist takes a book (old, new, recycled or multiple) and cuts, tears, glues, burns, folds, paints, adds to, collages, rebinds, gold-leafs, creates pop-ups, rubber-stamps, drills, bolts, and/or be-ribbons it. The artist may add pockets and niches to hold tags, rocks, ephemera, or other three-dimensional objects. Some change the shape of the book, or use multiple books in the creation of the finished piece of art.

Altered books may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture.Recycling old books and using them as art journals has also become popular with some art bloggers and proponents of upcycling.

While some books enthusiasts may object to the use of books in this way, some altered book artists have used the medium to question the changing nature of the book and its importance as a physical object.^[3]

I picked up a 1922 edition of Christopher Morley's "Translations from the Chinese", a book of verse that's satirical and pokes fun at "modern" life. I'm using the book as the structural basis of an art journal where each page spread is a unique work of mixed media art.

I put the altered book journal aside for a while but I've picked it back up again.  Below are some of the pages that I've completed already. Click on any of the images to enlarge them and see the layers of mixed media work.  

I have a number of new pages to scan, and when that's done I'll be posting about them, and why I began this project in the first place.