The two book, Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia set, Volume 21 & 23 circa 1948, was merged in the middle with alternating pages carefully fanned together, creating a three-panel visual artwork with various interesting images ranging from people, buildings, and other exciting subjects, this artwork emerges as an attractive showpiece that can be displayed on a wall or set on a shelf. Exposing the various images, the focus is typically on people doing interesting things, eyes, faces, buildings, or anything from a bygone era that was painstakingly published for reference material when computers weren't imagined as powerful as they are today.
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 simply 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.
