Special | 5m 43s | Video has closed captioning.
Books are in a conflicted state. From pop culture pop-ups, to surreal sculptural stories, to reformations of antique sacred texts, these creators re-envision what the experience of a book can be. At times playful, and other times profound, this episode explores the boundaries of one of the most important human creations.
Aired: 12/20/11
From:
CAROLE KUNSTADT: I think books have a very, very special place artistically, aesthetically, and on a metaphysical level.
You can see how all these pieces work together, and move.
And it happens right in front of you.
I'm mostly interested in art that is speaking intimately to the viewer.
Then they realize that this whole adventure took place in the imagination.
MATTHEW REINHART: What makes pop ups interesting-- it's happening right in front of you.
And you can touch it.
I love using paper to illustrate.
Because there's so many options.
So a pop-up book starts-- like any book, you have to have a manuscript, and ideas about what's going to happen on each page.
And you just cut and fold in.
You sort of develop it.
Usually in a book there's about 200 to 300 different pieces put together.
And I'll have to make artwork for most of them, and sketch on them-- in pencil, typically-- to make sure everything fits right.
I really got great opportunity to work on DC Comics.
And I'm a big DC fan.
My favorite DC characters are, number one, Green Lantern.
Because I like the idea of a hero that is powered by will.
I remember getting the sketch for the Wonder Woman-- just the pencil sketch.
And it was so beautiful.
So I was able to work on these characters that I really know.
And all the fans love it.
I had a big dream project years ago.
I've loved "Star Wars" my whole life.
And so I was able to do the first "Star Wars" pop-up book, "The Pop-up Guide to the Galaxy."
This book was dedicated to the original series.
I knew that the first pop up, the most important pop up for that book, was Darth Vader's helmet.
And if I could make that in, 3D, like, that was it.
I had the rest.
I loved "Return of the Jedi" because of all the creatures in it.
And yes, I like Ewoks.
It's fun to be able to recreate that stuff, and to give your own version of it, but still keep to that universe.
I use paper as structure, and also as the decoration for the structure.
ANDREA DEZSO: Books in general are very good at showing time and progression.
But tunnel books are very good at showing something happening right here, right now.
They are depicting these worlds that are almost like a dream.
And everything seems very real, and very possible.
With my tunnel books, I like to create scenes that want to be explained.
Because I think about them almost as the springboards for the imagination.
You long to go there.
You long to be there.
The story is for everybody, where they want to take it.
So I'm not referring to a story that is a shared story, that we all know.
My aim is more to surprise to viewer, so that the person who watches this feels compelled to make up their own back story.
There are folk stories in which it's imagined that there's a world that's parallel to our world.
And then, in a blink of an eye, the person finds himself or herself back in the real world.
When I was a child, I remember there were these moments when I saw something for the first time, where there was just this moment of awe.
Time completely disappeared.
And there was just this feeling of wonder.
And when I make art, I'm trying to bring these moments back, to show things in way that we are not so used to seeing them.
CAROLE KUNSTADT: The element of the metaphysical has always been something that interested me as an artist.
I found this book.
It was from 1844.
And it started to become the basis for a collage.
There's a yearning in all of us to have a connection to the source.
And so this book was a representation of that pathway.
Pretty early on, I started to sew into the lines of text.
And so that was a way to take away the impulse to read the text for what it was, by putting in a line of stitching, and also, at the same time, an emphasis.
You know, I'm not underlining the text.
I'm stitching through a line of text.
And somehow, added a textural element to the page.
The fact that just an implied stroke suggests a history, or a story, or some remnants of someone else's existence or past, was fascinating to me.
The book itself was containing an experience.
This ability for the written word to captivate us and take us to another place is so much a part of our DNA.
MATTHEW REINHART: Paper has both strength and fragility.
It's very easy to work with.
And anything can happen.
ANDREA DEZSO: I basically wanted to do art that involves the hands, as much as the mind and the heart, and that can change, as I change.
CAROLE KUNSTADT: I value books tremendously.
It's really honoring books that I'm altering them and manipulating them, showing my love of the experience of having books in our lives.
[music playing]
