BOOKWORKS by James Thurman

James Thurman's Bookworks was on display at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, 201 B Pattee Library, University Park from August 27– December 13, 2002.

Artist Statement:

Usefulness and function of an object are subjective. These pieces are created from books and maps that were en route to a landfill. No longer valued in their original state, they still held great potential as raw material for new art works. The pieces are created from a very direct but labor-intensive process: A circular section is cut from the discarded materials, all the layers are individually glued together, and then mounted on a lathe to cut its final form as a vessel.

These works contain both actual and metaphoric relationships to ideas of recycling and sustainability. The books involved have been directly recycled as new artworks. The artworks created emphasize their origins both literally and conceptually. The largest gain from this process is not the physical reduction of landfill, but the infiltration of these ideas through unconventional and unexpected channels. Upon realization of what the objects represent, the sharing of that knowledge and viewpoint occurs on an individual and very personal level. No one is being told how to think or act, just shown a new way of considering their actions in relation to the objects and environments that surround them.