Dem Bones (2018)
Altered book assemblage
by
Frank Turek
The inside cover is lined with fabric with vertical stripes of brown and olive. On the top center of the cover is a shallow round tin containing the skeleton of a garter snake, and on the bottom is an etching of a bearded man’s face. The tin’s lid has a clear plastic window, and its rim is covered in blue silken cloth. Below this tin assemblage is a black-and-white photo of a man with a booze bottle in the foreground. The frame on the right is covered with a color reproduction of the painting Femmes au Jardin by Monet. The central top area is backed with a photo of a theatrical scene with a man chanting in robe and headscarf and his attendant leaning from the side holding a lantern. In front of this picture, a vertical shard of thin green glass supports a black-and-white photo of a man’s lower leg and booted foot. On the sides of this compartment are illustrations of varieties of sandpipers that are mounted on a curve. The lower compartment of the framed area is a removable box with a shoelace handle. This box is fronted with a section of the same Monet painting as the frame. The back of this box is a scene from Titian’s Ecce Homo. The box contains cards from a picture game. Collaged to the backs of these cards are X-ray photographs of sea creatures and a young bird. In the compartment behind the box is an etching illustrating night fishing with cormorants.
Original book cover title:
Book cover used for this piece: Billy Smith - Trail Eater Ace by Noël Sainsbury Jr.
Some elements of this assemblage. Select one to find other altered books with the same.
bird, bottle, collaged cards, colored glass, cormorants, fabric sample, face, fish, foot, game card, lantern, Monet, olive, painting, robes, sandpipers, shoelace, skeleton, snake, stripes, Titian, X-ray