Reimagined Books for the 

Imagine/Reimagine Art Show at the Berkeley School

Beginning with a donation of books from a middle school library in San Francisco. Eighth graders chose from this lot of recycling-bound books to use in their altered book project. Sorting through titles, sizes, eras, content, colors, and their own relationship with books and reading or grappling with the content of a book, students made their choices.

Some students had a clear vision of the altered book they wanted to create, others had a sense of an alteration technique  they wanted to perform, such as folding or cutting out pages in the book. Starting with ideas, concepts and sketches recorded in their sketchbooks students began their projects. Students worked an average of 16 hours creating the detailed work presented in this year's Art Show, many adopting themes into their visuals that were inspired directly from the the subject matter in the book chosen, but every student heightened the visual possibilities housed in the words and structures of everyday publications like cookbooks, textbooks, history books, fiction, and illustrated children's books.