Artist Terry Border has a playful series of book sculptures titled ‘Wiry Limbs, Paper Backs’ in which he imbues books with distinct personalities by giving them limbs in the form of bent wires.
Each book is cleverly posed in a way that reflects its story–Gulliver’s Travels has tiny people clasped in its hands, while 1984 pays homage to its vision of a totalitarian regime by holding a film recorder that captures everything in sight.
Border initially started his project as a means of sending tokens of gratitude to the distributors of his upcoming children’s book, but started getting more involved as he created the sculptures.
He was also attracted to the old, weathered covers of classic novels, saying “A local used bookstore has a rack of old, mostly classic paperbacks that they sell for $2, and the covers are so great, and the used ones have so much personality, they begged to be made into something. There are always some people who find doing anything to a book besides reading it morally wrong (ha!), but the way I see it, I’m showcasing these books and their covers like they never would have been otherwise.”
Scroll down to view more of his delightful book sculptures and view more at his site.
[via My Modern Met, images via Terry Border]