Crystallized Book Art Alexis Arnold

Books convey that means by way of phrases, however they’re additionally bodily objects, whose supplies react to environmental circumstances and the passage of time. That is what Alexis Arnold examines in her ongoing collection, Crystallized Books, during which she treats discovered books with a borax answer in order that they develop crystals.

The ensuing objects appear to be books frozen in time — dropped within the snow and deserted, or mysteriously calcified mid-read.

Additionally they resemble layered rocks, laminated pastries, frozen waterfalls, bent our bodies. They inform a distinct story now than those printed of their pages.

The collection “addresses the materiality versus the textual content or content material of a e-book,” the artist explains on her web site.

“The crystals take away the textual content and solidify the books into aesthetic, non-functional objects. The books, frozen with crystal progress, have turn out to be artifacts or geologic specimens imbued with the historical past of time, use, and reminiscence.”

Arnold started the collection in 2011, impressed by discarded books she discovered round her house metropolis of San Francisco, in response to designboom. On the identical time, newspapers, magazines, and bookstores had been struggling, and the way forward for print media was unknown. 

How will folks see bodily books sooner or later — will they be unusual curiosities from the previous?

Yow will discover extra items from Alexis Arnold’s Crystallized Books collection right here.