Category: Altered Books

A Tiny Cell
collage, Neocolors II, packing tape transfer, with found poetry in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches

A Tiny Cell

All that you have
they do not want.

Suspected
schemed
intended to renounce the world
to ask for protection,
Scattering on the earth
giving shelter
a tiny cell
a shrine to the martyrs,
Like others before and since,
Obligations
all the heavier
because they were so often denied.

This spread gave me all kinds of fits. It helped to put down a protective layer of acrylic matte medium before blocking out the text, but I didn’t apply it to the margins. Duh. So, of course, I got crayon everywhere. And then, I couldn’t find any imagery I liked with the text. I wasted a few hours last night, trying to put something together, before giving up. It wasn’t until this evening, while I was on the phone with my mom and rummaging through a drawer of old magazine clippings, that I found something I liked. When all else fails, go for the giant brain, right?

The transparent box is actually a tape transfer I did of another magazine clipping. I liked its dark, smoky, uncertain quality. It was the borders of the box, and the way they tied everything to the text, that sold me.

The Martyrs
collage and watersoluble crayons in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches

The Martyrs (a found poem)
Empty martyrs,
blind guides,
maddening to pin down;
Wildly inconsistent
but others only pretended piety.

Questions divided
to find a clear answer,
Rituals culminated
in spite of all this,
Convincingly argued,
they celebrated
as a sacrament
such contradictions.

The Heretics
collage and watersoluble crayons in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches

The Heretics (a found poem)
When discovered among themselves –
Grudgingly respected,
Arrogant upstarts who threatened
the message,
Engaged in conversation with
such dissident seekers
With deeper insights
derived from deeper mysteries –
For the first time
The heretics speak to us
in their own words.

I’m a little ambivalent about how this turned out, visually. I’d probably change some things if I could. It’s a start, though, and starting is always the hardest part.

I should also point out that I cropped and pasted the two pages together, so that there is no gutter or white space. I had to scan them separately, because the book is too large to fit on my scanner bed. Didn’t I say that the next book was going to be small enough to fit? I lied.