ARTISTS GIVES NEW LIFE TO OLD BOOKS BY CHANGING THEM INTO SOMETHING ENCHANTING
After finding a box of wet books sitting on a Seattle street, artist Isobelle Ouzman began altering books for the first time in 2012. She had no idea that her early experiments with cutting and pasting pages together would eventually lead her to her current full-time passion. Ouzman has made a living by turning unwanted, discarded books into entranceways to fantastical realms.
These fantasy and folklore-inspired worlds are seductive ways to escape from the real world, but as Ouzman puts it, art is "like a mirror—it either reflects what we already feel, or the feelings we try hard to avoid." Art touches your heart, embraces your soul, and occasionally dries out the most sensitive wounds. The creative artist describes herself as a lifelong reader who is enthralled with the way stories alter our perception of reality and ourselves.
It should come as no surprise that Ouzman has a strong interest in psychology and once wanted to work as an art therapist. She is, in a sense, one, establishing rapport with the audience by discussing the significance of storytelling together.
Ouzman stated to a media outlet, “I only hope for people to see how transformative books and stories can be to our sense of self and belonging in the world."
Apart from examining the significance of stories in our process of creating meaning, Ouzman aspires to promote a more deliberate and leisurely pace in our daily routines and consumption patterns. She states, "Not everything has to be so quick, easy to consume, and fast-paced." "Regardless, the world moves quickly enough as it is." The majority of the books Ouzman currently uses were donated. She is basically preventing them from ending up in a landfill by transforming them into artwork.