Gestalten

American artist Brian Dettmer’s passion for books is not of the standard kind. What once served as reading material on his bookshelves are cut up, glued and torn apart into pieces altering their original state.

Epic novels transform into sculpture-like objects that hold a new and compressed meaning and significance – where there was once a story, is now a multitude of skillfully crafted tangible semantic levels.

Dettmer also pastes and layers found newspapers, maps and magazines in the same way and also employs this practice to create sculptures with old cassette tapes.

In Gestalten.tv’s interview with the artist, during one of his recent trips to Berlin, Dettmer rejoices about how books and printed matter continue to develop and redefine its form and function.


Subscribe to Gestalten.tv to download this film and all Gestalten Video Podcasts for free via iTunes.