{"id":426,"date":"2014-10-28T18:19:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:19:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruthsw.wrenhill.com\/?page_id=426"},"modified":"2020-10-26T20:15:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T20:15:04","slug":"books-that-have-been-altered","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ruthsw.wrenhill.com\/?page_id=426","title":{"rendered":"Altered Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Altered Books are a form of mixed-media artwork.  The existing book form is either altered to create a different structure with an altered meaning, or the original book can be utilized as a springboard for ideas for a new book object. <\/em><\/h2>\n
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Nana – The Count<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2012, Ruth was one of a number of artists selected to take part in an altered book project called The Library of Lost Books<\/a>.  <\/em>These were old, unwanted books from the former Birmingham Library. The altered books were exhibited in November 2013 as part of a conference Resurrecting the Book<\/em> to celebrate the opening of the largest public library in Europe, the new Library of Birmingham.  Ruth’s piece was inspired by a German translation of Emile Zola’s Nana<\/i>, published in Budapest by Gustav Grimm in 1910.<\/h3>\n
\"'Nana'<\/a>
‘Nana’ altered book for “The Library of Lost Books”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Ruth has made a comprehensive response to her book, a 1910 German translation of Emile Zola’s Nana. She is interested in the marginalia of of the book, passages underlined or marked by a previous reader. These have been translated directly from the German, the revealed text used to inform the creation of the finished work. Ruth’s response includes a handmade artists’ book documenting the translated text. She has built a miniature theatre with moveable flats and a curtain which can be raised and lowered all contained in a handmade box decorated with fabric digitally printed from the original book. Ruth includes cut-out characters that represent the people in Nana, their images taken from vintage photographs, along with a vintage map and an old postcard of Paris.” taken from ‘Bringing Back the Book’ by Jessica Glaser & Susan Kruse<\/em><\/h3>\n