Bookwork > A Passion Play

collage, wood
5 x 7 x 5 in.
1995

passion, play, excavated, remnants, cut, collage, gouge, dissection, collage, art, cut-out, paper cut, layered, conceptual, fine art, cut paper, alter, altered, bookwork, book, bookworks, unique book, one of a kind, altered book,

collage, wood

5 x 7 x 5 in.

1995

passion, play, excavated, remnants, cut, collage, gouge, dissection, collage, art, cut-out, paper cut, layered, conceptual, fine art, cut paper, alter, altered, bookwork, book, bookworks, unique book, one of a kind, altered book,

collage, wood

5 x 7 x 5 in.

1995

The title of this work is a play on words referring to both the era from which the paintings are collaged and puppet theatre. Constructed of a set of individual black-and-white reproductions of medieval paintings that I bound together in a concertina fold, I cut away large sections of the images, which I excavated one reproduction at a time with a belt sander. When the accordion-like construction is pulled apart, the layered ravaged images outline cavernous negative spaces that interact with bits of imagery on the verge of collapsing into the shadows. The excavated remnants, mounted on sticks, become abstract puppet shapes which viewers slip between the concertina folds to create their own performances. When the performance or reading is done, the book collapses into a flattened space.