"I can never pass up an old book," Jodi Harvey-Brown tells us. "At this point I have hundreds of them."
We were always taught that books, like musical instruments, have souls. To rip or damage them is a sin. But in the case of Harvey-Brown's sculptures, we think an exception should be made.
"It all started when I bought a box of old books at a second-hand shop. There was one book in the bottom of the box that had been crushed by the others. I started folding all of the pages to make a design. It was very simple but I was happy with the end result. The whole project took off from there."
Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer and Alice in Wonderland are just some of the literary characters Harey-Brown has created using the pages of their own books.
"Most of the reactions I've gotten to my sculptures have been very positive," she goes on. "People seem to really enjoy seeing their favorite stories made into something physical."
Not that everyone agrees, of course. For some, the 'book are sacred' principle is too hard to get past.
"I have had some negative feedback. Some people are upset that a book was harmed to make the sculpture. I tell them that I don't see my book sculptures as hurting a book, I see them as giving the book a new life."
What do you think?
