Brian Dettmer, the Book Surgeon

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Lest any of my faithful readers think they're the only ones whose wonderful linky suggestions I don't seem to get around to posting, my boyfriend sent me this and I didn't post it, and apparently it's on the Daily Dish and 3QD today & he's all like "why didn't you post it sooner? Didn't you get my email??"

Sigh.

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So for the record: Brian Dettmer is amazing. He makes these sculptures by carving away - not adding or repositioning - the pages of old illustrated books. And another thing that's really cool: letting the blogosphere (that's me!) disseminate and respond to his work is part of his artistic strategy:

The internet has been great because it has been self-perpetuating for my own work. After the work, I think the most important thing is to take good images and to allow others to grab them and let them spread. I don't twitter and I'm not on Facebook and I don't really have to promote myself at this point. It's a cliche but things really work from the bottom up now. I have been really fortunate with bloggers and other sites mentioning my work and that leads to magazines, newspapers and other press and more opportunities for my work to be exposed to an audience. (source)

Hooray for art blogs, and for artists who welcome people responding to and commenting on their work in one big semiotic exchange. (I think it's especially apropos when the artist's medium is repurposed texts, don't you?)

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More: Brian Dettmer's site and/or this post with 15 of his book sculptures and/or this interview with My Modern Met.

Via my boyfriend via My Modern Met.

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