Books have lives of there own not only by what is contained in the pages and between the covers but how they travel, who holds them, how they are opened, or collect dust. I think about the lives of books; the hands that hold them, drop them, tear them, fold their page corners, mark in them, love them, form opinions of them, keep them, change them, and rarely discard them.

As a child I loved books but it probably wasn’t for the reasons that most people love books. My love of books was the story that illustrations told. It wasn’t about the words although I have always been attracted to the actual letters and how the paragraphs were constructed to make shapes out of words. Drop letters are exciting to me as are the symbols, fonts, dingbats, and serifs.  They inspire me and take my imagination to a time of nonsense and art for art sake.

 Reading as a child and as an adult is laborious and it wasn’t until I became an adult did I find that I am dyslexic.  I figure that my imagination could construct the stories in my Little Golden Books® by mere pictures, illustrations and shapes of the words. I remember always having a book in one hand while in tow of my mother’s hand.  I love how they feel, how the paper is crisp or soft. The sturdiness of the cover and the stitches in the center and how they felt on my index finger while I gazed at the pictures. And there is always that thought of its fragility and don’t forget how it can cut you if you are not careful.

I have made books for several years either full of my photographs, snapshots or stories I like to tell, some are full of poetry and other just pieces of things I collect. I like the idea of the order a brook brings in its intimate engagement.

 Books or Codex, are of the late antiquity and can be many things; a book with pages (as opposed to a scroll) a block of wood, loose pages, fragments of sentence, assemblage of story.  I love the idea of book as object, it doesn’t bind my ideas and I often wonder when its barrier is broken and no longer has book-ness. My Book objects many times in-case smaller conventional books. Some folks refer to my current pieces as shrines.  Although they have the feel of book, alter piece, and often hold relics, found object or treasures they do not always have an association with religion.  More like something one may do religiously as an assemblage of objects, books, and images.  Some have themes and some are based on relationships of the objects they contain.  

See for yourself and read it how you choose, for you are the writer, and I shall provide you the invitation to think and dream.

WR-Ellis