Altered Book Spreads

This was my first experience creating an altered book. The book I altered was an encyclopedic-style book about Australia and New Zealand originally. In deciding how to alter it, I noticed that the book had 10 chapters, which worked for the number of spreads this assignment called for. The chapter titles, though intended to refer to the history, politics, and geography of the region, if thought of out of context also had a poetic quality. (Examples: "Two Distant, Strange and Rugged Lands," "A Breezy, Unpredictable People," "The Long White Cloud," "A Search for Identity.") My goal was to make a spread for each chapter title which would depict the more poetic translation of the words, but still incorporate and be driven by images and text from the original book.

I knew that in altering the book, the subjects of these chapters would no longer be describing Australia and New Zealand and would therefor become disparate; a connection between them would be difficult for a viewer to make, and I wanted all of the spreads to work together as a unified piece and not just a collection of independent compositions. So, as a unifying motif, I chose hands. Images of hands are present on each spread and are integral to the development of each composition.

I found myself fully engrossed in this project and thoroughly enjoyed working on it. I plan on finishing it - hopefully this summer.