dr. dettmer

brian dettmer is from chicago. he takes books and makes them into painstaking, breathtaking sculptures, carved with surgical precision, drawing the nickname "book surgeon" from some. he never adds, replaces or implants anything. he uses old encyclopedias.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 in his statement, dettmer explains the connection he feels with these books:

the age of information in physical form is waning. as intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether. newer media swiftly flips forms, unrestricted by the weight of material and the responsibility of history.

my work is a collaboration with the existing material and its past creators and the completed pieces expose new relationships of the book’s internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception.

 i think maybe everyone can relate to these ideas, and thus these sculptures. i know that each of us hesitates at the thought that the details of history, even as it happens today, might be slipping through the cracks of our new technologies.

you can read a short interview with the artist here.

and then you can go have a fabulous (albeit cloudy again) day!
cheers—!