As an artist you inevitably collect a large amount of art books, or at least I do. You think they will be of great use to you later on, but the truth is, since you have to work so much, you have very little time for browsing through books. Instead, they all remain forgotten and stacked away in your shelves, collecting dust. The most of them you ever see is their spines, which is a shame really, since the images inside are usually much nicer. For my collectors edition, I wanted to convert one of them into something more enjoyable, into an artwork where you would at least see two of all the great images in the book.

I also wanted to play around with the notion of actually looking at the images, so I gave the object its own eyes, with which it is always and constantly perusing itself.

The labyrinth I cut through the pages is sort of impossible to clear with both eye balls at the same time. The book is now a marble game, and as such it is both enjoyable and displays well on the wall. All the images apart from the two ones I picked for the front, are of course for ever hidden away now, and sealed behind bolted down perspex, but the two Michelangelo’s are seen much more often than if the book had just remained in its shelf.

What does an artist have to do with all those art history books, to be able to soak up the inspiration and knowledge contained in them? Maybe a magical/surreal approach is much more realistic than to say that, yes, I just need to take more time reading. Maybe browsing is really the answer, but if so, do you also have to own the books, or should you just pester the art book shops with your lounging around and perpetual browsing without buying? I don’t have the answer, but I hop my straight forward approach is at least enjoyable.