Books & Culture
Artist Turns Books into Crystallized Fossils
This article is free to read. So is every article Electric Literature publishes. No limits, no paywalls—now or ever. Support from readers like you makes that possible.
Electric Literature is proud to be a space where writers are always paid and reading is always free, and we plan to keep it that way.
Donate now to our spring fundraiser to help ensure the future of free, accessible literature for all.
—————
Some people say that print books are fossils in an age of e-readers, but artist Alexis Arnold decided to make that literal. In her Crystallized Book Series, Arnold turns the Bible, Billy Budd, the San Francisco phone book, and other books into crystallized art objects with Borax crystals. She explains:
The Crystallized Book Series addresses the materiality of the book versus the text or content of the book, in addition to commenting on the vulnerability of the printed book. The crystals remove the text and transform the books into aesthetic, non-functional objects. The books, frozen with crystal growth, have become artifacts or geologic specimens imbued with the history of time, use, and nostalgia. The series was prompted by repeatedly finding boxes of discarded books, by the onset of e-books, and by the shuttering of bookstores.
Click around the gallery above, or check out the entire series here.
