A few weeks ago, while visiting Greenwich Market, I came across some beautiful Book Sculptures. I stopped to take a closer look and talk to Robert Robinson of Rokoro.
Bristol based Alexander Korzer Robinson creates unique art of works by literally carving discarded encyclopaedias and exposing their inner beauty. He carefully cuts into the pages, deciding which illustrations to show and which to cut away. The result is these breathtaking narrative scenes. The amazing part for me is that they look like they’re a build up collage, strategically placed. Wrong! All illustrations are left in the original sequence and it’s up to Korzer-Robinson to decide what makes the cut! That’s where the art lies.
Penrose Annual, 1950 Book Sculpture £400
Detail of Penrose Annual, 1950 Book Sculpture
These book sculptures are one-offs and I love how, through the artists’ cut outs, the books takes on a new form of storytelling that I could get lost in for hours.
Korzer-Robinson in his own words: ‘Through my work in the tradition of collage I am pursuing a very personal obsession of creating narrative scenarios in small format. By using antiquarian books, it makes the work simultaneously an exploration and a deconstruction of nostalgia.’
The Boy’s Own Annual, 1901 Book Sculpture
Ganter Hochrelief – Der Große Herder Book Sculpture
As Korzer-Robinson’s book sculptures are one off’s and with the according price tag, you can buy less expensive limited edition hand cut layered 3-D prints of some of the originals put together by Robert Robinson. The layers are printed in pigment ink on archival cotton rag and are fade resistant for over 100 years. It all gets framed in a wooden box frame and comes with an acrylic pane and is ready to hang.
A selection of these 3-D print artworks are now available to buy at Liberty’s. Apart from the 3-D print artworks, Rokoro also sells shadow boxes.
Detail of The ‘Other Alice’ shadow box series 2
Detail of The “Other Alice’ shadow box series 1
There is a real sense of nostalgia in these pieces and I would love to own one. If you’re in London and interested in Book Art, why not visit Beyond the Book: an exhibition of artists who use books as their medium. The exhibition is on until the 17th July and you’ll also find some of Alexander Korzer-Robinson’s book sculptures there.
15 Comments
Wow, these are absolutely beautiful, I think I might need to take a trip to Liberty.
Hi Emma.
They are so much better in the flesh. It was hard to photograph and show the 3D effect.
You’ll find the either in Liberty or at Greenwich Market…
Tina, thank you so much for sharing these – they are simply amazing.
Incredible. It makes me happy just to look at them! 🙂
Pleasure Alexandra. It’s fascinating to see how Book upcycling and sculptures can become something new and in their own rights?
For me, Alexander’s work tells it’s own stories.
Glad you enjoyed:-)
Beautiful work! I like the idea to create something new with old and discarded material. Wish you a great weekend.
Hello Angela.
Yes, agreed. As I just mentioned in a comment, they take on a whole new life of their own and for me, it’s the visual aspect that is so alluring.
Thanks you. Hope you had a good weekend.
Lovely work, reminds me a bit of Joseph Cornell. Darn! I would have loved to see this exhibit. Thanks for sharing his amazing work!
Yes, there’s definitely resemblance with JC’s work.
I’m going to try and get to the exhibition, time permitting.
Hope you’re well x
Absolutely amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Pleasure:-))
Wowsers!
Incredible, right?!
Oh I love this! The work is so intricate and I can imagine that Alexander spends many hours cutting out each piece of the collage to put together. I can really appreciate that labour that went into each book and the price reflects this as it should. xD
I know, it fascinates me…I love that Alexander makes his own story from an already printed book. A great craft.
Thank you Doris x
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