Will Ashford’s Recycled Words



Will Ashford turns pages from old books he found at garage sales, street markets and used bookstores into works of art:

When I find a good candidate I explore every page. Like an archeologist I hunt for the words that speak to me with new meaning. Intuitively, one word at a time, they turn into a kind of haiku or philosophical poetry that I can call my own.

At some unpredictable point along the way, in my mind, the images start to invent themselves. Using colored vellums, graphite and or India ink to highlight or obscure my words; I create the image of that invention. Though I strive to make each document visually engaging I find it is the words that I value most.

Not to be missed: Link - via Bibi’s Box


Previous Post
Get Neatorama by RSS or email
 Next Post
Posted on April 5, 2008 at 2:23 am by Alex
Category: Art & Craft, Book & Lit, Pictures



13 Comments to "Will Ashford’s Recycled Words"

  • Rosi
    April 5th, 2008 at 3:33 am

    It kind of reminds me of the Library of Wadi-Ben Dahr (not sure if this name is correct), an installation that was in the museum of women in the arts about three years ago. It was a room filled with furniture all covered in pages of books, and containing books filled with real things like insects or jewels against the pages. All the items in it were themed with the pages covering it e.g. the chessboard was made out of Sun Tzu’s Art of War, the umbrella of Shakespeare’s plays etc.
    I can’t seem to find out any more information about this though.

  • oezicomix
    April 5th, 2008 at 6:46 am

    come on…. iRain? enough with the “i” stuff already!

  • alison
    April 5th, 2008 at 7:14 am

    Okay I’m kind of in love

  • ted
    April 5th, 2008 at 7:48 am

    This is what schoolchildren do in textbooks every day.

    Seems like a waste of a book.

  • Badjuk
    April 5th, 2008 at 8:40 am

    heh bore bore bore

  • Thomas
    April 5th, 2008 at 9:49 am

    I like it. It’s a new take on something old. What’s not to like, except for the destruction of old books, maybe.

  • Nastia
    April 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    Wow I only saw the city scape reflecting off the water the 2nd time I looked at this, I would’ve like it just as much if it wasn’t on a book page, it definitely seems like a waste

  • Jerse
    April 5th, 2008 at 11:31 am

    This is the coolest thing I’ll see today!

  • CheeseDuck
    April 5th, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    Beautiful.

  • Tempscire
    April 5th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Prettiest book defacement ever.

  • avraamov
    April 5th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    i don’t want to sound like a git, but i’m imagining tom phillips might have something to say about it…

    http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/humument/

  • L
    April 5th, 2008 at 7:30 pm

    I’m trying to figure out how he got rid of the words at the top, leaving only the letter “i”.

    I don’t like the idea of defacing books, but if they’re old and are already missing pages, they’re not good for much else. And what would this piece be without the book page? A drawing of an umbrella and a cityscape. That’s been done already, I’m sure.

  • neal johnson
    April 7th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Yeah, it’s Tom Phillips “Humument” all over… An innocent recreation of another’s art, or just a typical po-mo ripoff? Makes me wonder…

Want your own avatar? Get one for free at Gravatar!


Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. We don't censor comment based on your point of view but comments that are abusive, use excessive profanity, or contain off-topic links may get edited or deleted. On some posts, it may take up several minutes for you comment to show up.


Stay updated on the comments in this post with Comment RSS