The radical index, which comes at the start of the Chinese-to-English section of dictionaries, has been removed ... there are limits to what an ex-librarian can do to a book, even in the name of Art Homework. (And consider the way books, writing, learning are traditionally venerated in China. This alteration is ... desecration.)
Now, what to do with the English-to-Chinese part of the dictionary?
And with the tongue-shaped papers that came out of the hole?
Hi Margaret:
ReplyDeleteInteresting altered book!
When my dad died recently, we went through boxes of 'stuff'. One interesting item was an altered book that my grandfather made in the 1920's. He took a textbook on government regulations for farming and pasted in newspaper cuttings. What was old is new again!
I'm finding your progress here fascinating: I know what you mean about desecration: having grown up with the idea that books are sarcred, I'm left wondering what to do with the books that are so old and tattered (and of zero literary or historical merit) that even the charity shops won't want them! I'm trying to steel nysself to throw them away but haven't managed it yet.
ReplyDeleteI've seen so many altered books that made me wonder why anyone would want to ruin a book in that way, but I like this idea! I'm also interested that you described the removed paper as "tongue" shaped. Most appropriate for a dictionary, and probably leads to all sorts of possibilities for using them. I'm really looking forward to seeing the end result.
ReplyDeleteI bet that took a lot of cutting!
ReplyDelete