The Surgical Scriptures

Brian Dettmer approaches a book like a surgeon. And -- using the tools of a surgeon -- he cuts them up, creating amazing works of art you need to see to believe. Our text refers to the Word, not as an object to be cut, but as a tool that does the cutting.

Brian Dettmer approaches a book like a surgeon. You might think that's a metaphor for the way he dissects and exegetes the text, but in his case it's actually quite literal. Dettmer approaches every book with an actual scalpel and does some actual textual surgery, carving old books into masterpieces.

Dettmer is an artist and his three-dimensional book carvings are truly stunning (see the pictures on the website link below). He cuts out certain parts and pages of old encyclopedias, medical journals, dictionaries or illustration books with exacting precision and leaves behind a deep visual feast of words and images that bring the book back to life in a new way. Where editing is a chore for most of us, he has turned it into an art form.

Dettmer's work is a painstaking process done one page at a time with the scalpel, tweezers and a knife. He also bends and manipulates the spines and covers of the books, rolls back pages and puts together stacks of books to create these original literary...