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    Paola Grizi Adds New Meaning to ‘Literary Figures’ in Emotive Bronze Sculptures

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    “Another Place,” Casart Edition, bronze, 32 x 30 x 35 centimeters

    Paola Grizi Adds New Meaning to ‘Literary Figures’ in Emotive Bronze Sculptures

    May 14, 2025

    Art

    Kate Mothes

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    In the emotional bronze and terracotta sculptures of Paola Grizi (previously), faces and hands merge with pages of books and manuscripts. Handwriting slides off the leaves onto skin and reliefs of eyes, noses, and mouths peer outward like knowledge and stories personified. Many of her works are scaled to sit on interior surfaces, while others, like “Inner Motion” or “Looking Ahead” take on monumental proportions.

    Grizi currently has work permanently on view at Marciano Contemporary in Paris, Bel Air Fine Art in Luxembourg, and Gallery Van Dun in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands. This summer, pieces will also be included in a presentation at Gallery Maner in Port-Aven, France. See more on the artist’s website.

    “Looking Ahead,” Casart Edition, bronze, 120 x 110 x 20 centimeters

    “Background,” Casart Edition, bronze, 32 x 12 x 15 centimeters

    “Inner Motion,” Casart Edition, bronze

    “Kiss,” Casart Edition, bronze, 35 x 37 x 20 centimeters

    “Boundless,” terracotta

    “Composition,” Casart Edition, bronze, 30 x 35 x 25 centimeters

    “Multiple Lectures,” Casart Edition, bronze, 35 x 30 x 20 centimeters

    Work in progress in the artist’s outdoor studio

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      in Art

      Blasting Books with High-Pressure Water, Guy Laramée Scales Mountains of Knowledge

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      “Livros 2” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 12.99 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches. Photos by by Ivan Macedo Dias. All images © Guy Laramée, courtesy of JHB Gallery, New York, shared with permission

      Blasting Books with High-Pressure Water, Guy Laramée Scales Mountains of Knowledge

      March 31, 2025

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      From his mountainside studio in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, Guy Laramée (previously) creates otherworldly sculptures that mirror nearby peaks like Pico da Caledônia. Using a unique method of blasting antique books with high-pressure water and stripping them of their covers, he manipulates the bound text blocks into craggy cliff faces and rocky promontories.

      When viewed from certain angles, each sculpture’s identity as volumes of text nearly vanishes as we perceive mountains in miniature. As one moves around the pieces, the rigid form of stitched binding appears or printed pages ruffle and hint and the contents.

      Detail of “Livros 3”

      Laramée’s sculptures tread the line between object and landscape, juxtaposing themes of knowledge, history, and archives with geology, time, and the environment. The artist often employs dictionaries and encyclopedias, which constantly evolve and require updates, exploring the tension between physical representations of information and learning and our relationship with the natural world.

      The works shown here are part of Laramée’s online exhibition presented by JHB Gallery, Livros, which continues through May 4. Find more on the artist’s website.

      “Livros 3” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 9.06 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches

      “Livros 6” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 7.87 x 14.17 x 5.91 inches

      “Livros 6”

      “Livros 2” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 12.99 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches

      “Livros 1” (2025), water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 6.66 x 9.84 x 5.91 inches

      “Livros 5” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 11.4 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches

      Detail of “Livros 5”

      “Livros 4” (2025), waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 9.84 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches

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    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Art

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

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      “An African Survey.” All images © Barbara Wildenboer, shared with permission

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

      September 4, 2024

      Art Craft

      Jackie Andres

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      While heavy, hardcover reference books often embody prestige and historical value, the comprehensive volumes also carry an air of intellectual overload. Filled from cover to cover with extensive and complex concepts, the tomes beckon the Paradox of Knowledge, which states that the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know.

      This vexing liminal space between the known and unknown is a driving force for Barbara Wildenboer’s work. The Cape Town-based artist (previously) sources secondhand books that span a wide range of languages, worldviews, and subjects such as philosophy, art, history, music, biology, archaeology, and more. Fascinated by linguistics and systems of writing, Wildenboer aims to decode the ways that we assign meaning to symbols.

      “A World History of Art”

      Scalpel and scissors in hand, Wildenboer transforms countless book pages into narrow, capillary-like slivers that splay outward from the spine. Through these symmetrical sculptures, the artist references other naturally mirrored forms like the brain’s left and right hemispheres linked by the corpus callosum, the wingspan of the death’s-head hawkmoth, and the Rorshach inkblot.

      Wildenboer connects these formal qualities to the process of deciphering texts. Her biography notes, “she cuts through these dense and claustrophobic discourses, rendering them mute.” Instead, she alters books to the point that they’re no longer legible, transforming the once familiar characters into new glyphs.

      See more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      “Genesis”

      “Cogito Ergo Sum” More