Books Lie!
If you've ever attended An Introduction to the Art Of Book Folding workshop (over 1000 have), then you'll have heard me say this. A lot.
If you haven't, you probably have no idea that one of the first challenges to transforming a book into a sculpture, is working out how many pages it has. Seems simple? It's not hahaha
Logic would tell you that you simply need to flick to the back for the last page number. Practice will defy that logic, in a number of ways.
• most books have more pages after the last page number.
• hardly any books begin on page 1.
• indexes and annexes can run to hundreds of pages each.
• many books are comprised of more than one volume, meaning there could be multiple last page numbers.
• some books don't even have page numbers!
• reference books often have more than one page number per page.
• many books have pages like in the photo - page 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D...
• some books have non numbered pages.
• some picture pages are included in pagination - some aren't.
I have no end of examples of when books have lied, assumption has bitten me in the arse, and hours and books have been wasted. Like the time I was working with a German/English dictionary. And I was almost at the halfway point of my design, when I realised I still had way WAY over half the pages to go. I can't remember the exact numbers, but basically the dictionary was numbered 1-500 English to German. And then 1-500 German to English. And just to add insult to injury, there were 30 or so BLANK pages in the centre, for notes hahahha aarrggggghhhh!
So, dear reader, books lie. And the simplest first step, determining how many pages I have to play with, is the first hurdle, that I can still stumble over, when tired, or stupidly forgetting that the books are in charge, not me! hahaha
~ Jo
Self taught designer maker of hand folded book art sculpture
If you haven't, you probably have no idea that one of the first challenges to transforming a book into a sculpture, is working out how many pages it has. Seems simple? It's not hahaha
Logic would tell you that you simply need to flick to the back for the last page number. Practice will defy that logic, in a number of ways.
• most books have more pages after the last page number.
• hardly any books begin on page 1.
• indexes and annexes can run to hundreds of pages each.
• many books are comprised of more than one volume, meaning there could be multiple last page numbers.
• some books don't even have page numbers!
• reference books often have more than one page number per page.
• many books have pages like in the photo - page 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D...
• some books have non numbered pages.
• some picture pages are included in pagination - some aren't.
I have no end of examples of when books have lied, assumption has bitten me in the arse, and hours and books have been wasted. Like the time I was working with a German/English dictionary. And I was almost at the halfway point of my design, when I realised I still had way WAY over half the pages to go. I can't remember the exact numbers, but basically the dictionary was numbered 1-500 English to German. And then 1-500 German to English. And just to add insult to injury, there were 30 or so BLANK pages in the centre, for notes hahahha aarrggggghhhh!
So, dear reader, books lie. And the simplest first step, determining how many pages I have to play with, is the first hurdle, that I can still stumble over, when tired, or stupidly forgetting that the books are in charge, not me! hahaha
~ Jo
Self taught designer maker of hand folded book art sculpture