Altered Book Project

After my last crit I have chosen to change the book that I originally intended to alter to the Dan Brown series. I am not hugest fan of the books but the controversy that surrounds them is the most intresting thing to me. The Catholic church has boycotted these books as they contain religious references and in some cases put the church in a bad light. This is so ridiculous! CHILL OUT! There just fictional novels. What is wrong with a little imagination?

I plan to do exactly what the catholic church fears and alter the books into some sort of religious shrine. I looked at images and items that are associated with the catholic church.

I then planned what my piece might look like when made out of the books ...

I then made a prototype item out of a book. I chose to make a rosary.

I like the use of the book with this form of structure although to apply to a shrine maybe particualy hard to execute. With the idea of shrines in mind, I started to think about things you find in churches and I looked at the idea of stained glass windows.

This lead me to making this ....

I thought about using the pages from the book as the glass. I washed water colour over the torn area and outlined with black acrylic like the black resin used on stained windows. If I were to present it at the exhibition , I thought about displaying it with a light behind, so it would glow like a true stained glass window.