Found & Bound Self-Assessment

         This project from the very beginning was a completely novel undertaking. I had never even contemplated destroying multiple books to create a "work of art". I did not know what narrative I wanted to do until I found the right couple of books. Once I had the books, I started researching online different ways to destroy and combine books. I still was not sure how much I wanted to destroy the books though. Finally however, I decided to take all the pages out of Around the World in 8 Days, which was my cover, and to replace the pages with pages from a United States Almanac. Deciding which pages to include however was another obstacle I had to face.

          Do I want to make a statement about me or just a statement about travel? I ended up compromising for the two. I decided to include places in my book that I have lived and loved, other than Maryland. I included Maryland, because that is where I have lived the longest, and can't wait to get out of. I love traveling, and staying in Maryland for such an extended period of time has pushed me to want to leave, but still there were plenty of things to commemorate in each state.

       In order to properly commemorate and memorialize the states and have the reader get the same enjoyment out of each state that I do, I needed to do more than just paste images into it. I needed to make the images "special", more specifically, they needed to stand out, so I started cutting away. Not one image is cut in the same shape, and is definitely not a boring traditional square. This affect, I believe, helps to show the unique experiences I had in each place, and the unique experience someone else may have while traveling.
      
        To add to the mystique of each place, I painted scenery from each place in the proper sections. The effect the watercolor paints I used created an almost memory, or dream-like, recollection of each scene. The blurred edges must have been the culprit of this effect. This was actually brought up in the class discussion of my book. I was completely shocked that the group that looked through my book paid that close attention to it, and drew from my book something I had tried to put into it for their benefit. I guess that was a nice pat on the back.

         Coupled with this pat on the back however, this project had some pretty daunting dilemmas involved with the production of the book. First off, since I had removed all the pages and replaced them with loose pages, I had to find a way to bind them. I decided to go with the technique of sewing the pages together into groups. To add some semblance of a divider between groups of states, a time for the viewer to take in everything he had just observed, I shrouded each section in a waxy paper. This added a different texture to the book, as well as an obvious break point. Not only did I have to whip out some needle and thread to bind my book, I also required a hammer and nail, Elmers glue, fabric, a hot glue gun, and 4 heavy duty clamps. This was probably the most hardware related art project I have ever gotten myself into.

        Even after all the construction of my book, and everything was in one piece, I came across a problem. After hot gluing the fabric in to cover the unsightly stitches, the book would not close. To counteract this unhappy accident, I devised a plan. Since the glueing the fabric in was what caused the problem, I decided to make a little joke for myself. I braided some fabric together into a strand and used one of those rings people use to hold index cards together as a clasp. Obi had a great analogy for this. She likened it to a baggage handle, which went perfect with the narrative of my book. Even without planning it, the accidents I seemed to make and overcome during the production of my first Photobook seemed to help the overall outcome.

        In the end however, all my hard work paid off. I was very happy with how my book turned out and how the class reacted to it. Thanks to this project and my naive understanding of bookmaking, has taught me what I can and can't do, as well as given me new ideas for the next projects. I honestly believe that my books can only get better from here, and this is a pretty high starting point if I do say so myself.