The Book Project
by Natalie Parker
I call this “The Book Project” for lack of a better name. Over the weeks it took to put together, that is how I referred to it in my mind.
I designed and made this piece myself using very worn (and oftentimes library discarded) copies of my favorite books. I had just moved and wanted something interesting to hang above the couch. I got the idea at a bar one evening — the entire upper third of the wall at the bar was thumbtacked pieces of random books.
I took it a step further by making a list of my favorite books and hunting down worn copies that were at the end of their lives. Even more complicated, I chose carefully exactly what portion of the book to display. Looking at the wall, I can remember when Mary finds a garden, when Billy takes delivery of his dogs, when Julia has her first meal in France, and when Hobbes puts on a tie to go out to dinner.
I designed and built the frame myself, it is five feet wide and holds about fifty books. The back of the frame is plywood with cork board glued on top. The book pieces are tacked to the cork board.
Some have asked if I couldn’t have just used color copies of book pages. It would not have had the same effect. I love how some of the pages are yellowing more than others and over time, some of the pages have fanned out. A project like this could easily be duplicated with any pre-made frame. An old frame from a thrift store would look very nice.
The rest of the book parts are not going unused. I am repurposing them into other craft projects and gifts. Little Women coasters anyone?
Natalie Parker is almost finished with SLIS coursework and is focusing on archives and information organization. During the day, she works for a legal department at a large tech company in the Silicon Valley. In addition to work and school, she blogs about crafts and memory keeping.