Guy Laramee Carves Gorgeous Landscapes Into the Edges of Books

Artist, composer and writer <a href="http://guylaramee.com" target="_blank">Guy Laramee</a> skillfully transforms old encyclopedias into the majestic topographies described within their pages. Laramee carves away at <a href="http://inhabitat.com/aspen-mays-rainbow-spectrum-book-sculpture-is-inspired-by-einsteins-theories/" target="_blank">stacks of books</a> to create mountains, temples, caves, and architectural icons with delicate precision. The intricate sculptures give the <a href="http://inhabitat.com/japanese-artist-cuts-hundreds-of-butterflies-out-of-books-and-sets-them-aflutter-on-room-walls/" target="_blank">outdated volumes new life</a>, while also paying tribute to the history they once taught.

In two series entitled <em>The Great Wall</em> and <em>Biblios</em>, Laramee used <a href="http://inhabitat.com/incredible-house-sculpture-made-from-hundreds-of-recycled-books-by-cardiffmiller/" target="_blank">vintage books as a medium</a> for his epic sculptures.

With a belief that humans obsessively feel the need to change and destroy cultural forms, he takes to destroying the written word in order to translate it into his message. Using books in sculpture is nothing new, other artists have recycled the pages to <a href="http://inhabitat.com/inhabitats-top-eco-art-picks-from-art-basel-week-in-miami/" target="_blank">portray words or collage like sculpture</a>. But Laramee’s pieces effectively transform the medium, rendering the pages to look more like carved marble reliefs rather than paper.

The tattered cloth spines and covers are generally kept in tact, giving the origin away. But only glimpsing the carved mountains or reliefs causes a momentary confusion, with the question “What am I looking at ?” left on our minds.

Often set <a href="http://inhabitat.com/book-lamp/" target="_blank">spine to spine</a>, Laramee has carved mountainous glacial landscapes, stepped plateaus, and deep valleys rife with greenery. His work does not only encompass topography, but ancient architecture as well. A Buddhist temple appears to be carved into a cliff side in his piece “Longmen.”

<a href="http://inhabitat.com/alvaro-tamarit-reuses-recycled-books-to-form-bench-of-thought/" target="_blank">A stack of volumes</a> reveals a cave dwelling that is carved into from the book corners. Laramee even carved a detailed rendering of the Temple at Petra from yellowed pages, which looks like the real thing when photographed.

Laramee’s <a href="http://inhabitat.com/artist-brian-dettmer-carves-old-books-into-intricate-narrative-sculptures/" target="_blank">beautiful book carvings </a>create a relationship between the life of the books he uses, with their artist aftermath, after they’ve become obsolete. His “mountains of disused knowledge” are then returned to their origin, as grandiose mountains.