I found this damaged engineering drawings book at a local estate sale. It has paint drippings, scratches, and several torn pages, which is a shame as the drawings were really interesting. Opening it up in the middle, I wanted to expose as many of the diagrams as possible.
My father was involved in the construction industry and quite the draftsman, so I through about the hundreds of detailed drawings and diagrams he'd produced over the years as I created and exposed images. It's kind of a Ode to him and his work.
Artist Statement
Shane uses aged reference books deemed useless, like medical guides, journals, and encyclopedias, to bring new life to books that would otherwise be discarded. Glue seals the pages in their original printed location decided by the publisher, leaving the page revelations to the artist's imagination. Layers are removed to reveal images randomly. With no plan, the artist finds an exciting image, carves around the photo, diagram, or drawing, and adds cut lines, insets, and other random elements to provide an artistic view into the past, the book, and the pages as intended by the printer. Exposing the images in their original form, location, and placement on the page gives the viewer a greater appreciation of printed material from the Gilded Age when print media was mass-produced and information became readily available before today's digital format. Each page is carved delicately with stainless steel hardened medical scalpels to create a three-dimensional effect.
Shane uses old discarded printed material to bring new life to an item usually destined for the trash bin, landfill, or growing mold in some attack or basement.
