Tunnel Book & Nautilus

As our images and books become digitized, I suppose I’m wanting an immersive environment that is physical and material, as opposed to an ephemeral translation of mediated data into light.

I’ve developed a craving for huge, clunky books,  and for building picture books that humans can crawl into.

These two projects were early attempts to build three-dimensional, immersive picture books.

The Tunnel book is an actual type of pop-up book. This one was 6′ x 6′, ”open’. The front panels were on wheels, and could fold out, the back was anchored in place with a heavy steel base and an old glass door I found in the street. It contained graphite drawings on paper and cardboard. The panels were conncected along an expanding steel linkage as a spine. The outside cover was heavy paper folded exactly like old-fashioned camera bellows. The idea was that the viewer would be able to turn it and drag it to get different perspectives on the drawings contained inside. the interior, lit with led’s.

It was presented at Ateliers Jean-Brillant in 2010.

2008 – The ‘nautilus’ was also a book: 12, muslin-covered, heavy board ‘pages’ bound together by a single, 3′ long steel rivet.  

The inside contained graphite drawings on a blood red background you could only see by crawling right inside. ‘Open’ it was 5 feet in diameter, between 3 feet to 10” tall.