fin de siècle (2020)
Altered book assemblage
by
Frank Turek
The inside cover is backed with a maroon wallpaper pattern of horizontal bars. Attached to the cover is a box covered with a black-and-white photo of an experimental biplane. Inside this box is a tray that can be pulled out with a red ribbon. The tray is covered with a light blue fabric with a floral pattern. Collaged to the inside of the tray is a photo of actress and ice skater Sonia Henie. A set of four cards rest in the tray. These cards are collaged with illustrations showing the steps of an experiment using a bowl and a chalkboard. Above this box is an American outsider-artist painting of Hudson River area gentry gathering in a park. Mounted adjacent and to the right of the airplane box and the painting is a used test tube containing a solitary red feather. The frame of this piece is covered with a 1960s color illustration of men of the American West with their pickup trucks. The background of the framed section is a color photo of a 1950s-era car driving down a scenic highway with magenta-colored flowers in the foreground. Centered atop this photo is a functioning metal game spinner. Cut into this photo are six rectangular glassed-in windows revealing six different vivid color photos of styles of pancakes. Along the top of the background photo are four small game pieces: white plastic cutouts of a wishbone and a sheep, a knight chess piece, and a yellow tin railroad car. The inside bottom of the frame has three small objects: a used antique bottle of hair remover, a plastic figure of a woman juggler holding clubs in her upraised hands, and a rubber baby llama. The inside panels of the frame are Art Nouveau period interior gilded walls. The inside top of the frame is text from a pulp story depicting a Middle Eastern sheik’s courtyard.
Original book cover title:
Book cover used for this piece: Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley
Some elements of this assemblage. Select one to find other altered books with the same.
art deco, bottle, car, chess piece, game piece, ice skater, painting, pancakes, pickup trucks, playing card, purple, red ribbon, test tube, train car, wallpaper pattern