Once upon a time in the kingdom of Denmark, a grandfather gave his granddaughter some very, very old French books. Now, the books were a very nice gift, but what the granddaughter had really wanted from her grandfather was the Russian enameled cup that purportedly came from the Russian imperial court as it had on it the double headed eagle and Nicolas II written in Cyrillic. The granddaughter had been studying both French and Russian in college, so it was probably a toss-up for the grandfather as to which gift to bestow. I still think about that beautiful cup, but I am grateful to have the books which decades later are being used in my book art.
I have no qualms about tearing, folding or drawing on pages from the seventeenth century. The paper is of such quality that it can withstand these treatments much better than book paper from later centuries.
My latest book art, using one of these very, very old books, will be on display in the Ojai Valley Museum from August 16 through October 14. The photos with this post show the work in progress. Please come see the finished piece.
What a wonderful tale!