Amazing Book Art

Gerard Darby is back in the Grand Illusions studio, with more of his amazing books! In this video, we look at a few amazing books that he calls 'Book Art', since they take the traditional book to new and sometimes surprising levels...

'Tilt' is a book about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The book has been created so that it also leans!

'Writers Block' is a book that is - more or less - in the shape of a cube, so it is a block in that sense. But as you look through the pages, you see lots of suggestions and ideas (Write about your worst habits is one example) and the idea is that if you are a writer and you are suffering from writer's block, this book might spark off an idea to help you get back to your writing!

A book containing 'thinking puzzles' designed for use in the smallest room, and the book itself is shaped appropriately.

Next, a book that purports to be an ex library book - all the library stamps are there, inside the back cover. However, as well as the main story printed in the book, there is a second story going on, consisting in written notes and messages in the margins of the book, apparently a correspondence between two people who have been borrowing the book. They have even left messages and postcards for each other, inside the book!

A 1960s book called 'The Unfortunates' comes as a number of separate chapters. One is marked as the first chapter, and another one is clearly the last chapter. However the remaining chapters can be read in any order and the book will still make sense.

What do you call a novel with no E’s? La Disparition! This book by the French writer Georges Perec was published in the 1960s, and a work of this kind is sometimes referred to as a 'lipogram'. Apparently a lipogram is a literary work in which one compels oneself strictly to exclude one or several letters of the alphabet. The book was subsequently translated into English, and of course the original title translates as 'The Disappearance' which would be no good, since this title contains several letter e's. So the English title was changed to 'A Void'. (Personally I would have also liked 'A Lacuna'. )

Gerard then shows his copy of 'Enter If You Can' by a friend called Peter Hajek. The book is all about Puzzle Boxes, and this is the locked version, where you have to solve the puzzle in order to be able to unlock the book!

Finally, a very unusual book called 'Le Petit Théâtre de Rébecca'. Rébecca Dautremer is a French illustrator, and the book contains a series of die-cut illustrations. One reviewer who had bought the book wrote as follows -

'This is an astonishingly beautiful book unlike any other. It's not a story book, it's a review of the illustrator's previous work in an ingenious format: a series of oh-so-delicate cut-outs gradually revealed in a little theatre. Exquisite. Not for children, who would no doubt like it but almost certainly destroy it. For adults, then? For adults who retain a child's sense of wonder. For the few. But oh how the few will love it! It's a rare work of art.'

Видео Amazing Book Art канала Grand Illusions