- University of Oregon from 1948.
Books with interesting illustrations are always fun,
like that one.
I find old books, sometimes new books,
and I alter them.
I leave all the pages bound,
but I cut through the pages to reveal the content,
so I just make sculptures out of books.
With this photograph I think that border would actually be
easier to incorporate than the face.
Ugh, I have so many books in line.
I wish I could cut faster.
- In the way Michelangelo is able to carve
a sculpture from a piece of marble,
James is able to carve a sculpture from a book.
- [James] I'm just trying to set the stage where
the different elements of the book seem to be interacting,
almost like you could see them moving
or communicating with each other.
All right. - James does book excavations,
and they fall in the category of book and paper art.
He's basically dissecting books and making them into
a completely different graphical sculpture.
- There's the Battle of Ecnomus in Roman history.
It's sort of about time
because you're digging into the past, you know, I'm digging.
As I'm excavating the book, I'm discovering things.
It's almost intriguing to see
how the past mirrors the present.
I've always been fascinated with altering existing objects,
and it started out as a way to take media that was
already out there and making it more interesting to look at.
I always am surprised by the things
that emerge out of the books.
Something that I hadn't even thought would be included
will all of a sudden line up in a really nice way.
- Wow, oh, you don't do very many with color illustrations.
He can look at a book, find that central illustration,
create a narrative around it,
and make this beautiful sculptural object,
and how he does that one page at a time really is amazing.
- [Narrator] Laura Russell owns 23 Sandy,
a Portland gallery dedicated to book arts.
James is one of the artists she represents
to libraries and other clients.
- Wow, well, you have amazing timing,
because I just had a library yesterday call me
and ask for books with botanical illustrations.
Lot of these books,
if he wasn't rescuing them and making art of them,
they would be lost.
Books are being discarded by libraries
on a regular basis these days.
They're really, literally, recycling box loads
and box loads of books.
- Yeah, people do ask me that, like,
do I feel bad about cutting the books up,
and I guess I do sometimes think about,
especially with the older books,
and just wondering how many of them are left.
But a lot of times, like, the encyclopedias I just found,
they were just sitting on the curb.
You know, if it rained they would be all ruined.
So I feel like I'm kind of rescuing them in some ways
and giving them new life
and then bringing attention to their beauty.
- [Jane] So just in the center of that--
- Just take these two down?
- No, I think take all three down,
- Take all three down? - and just have this
off the center of that.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] When he's not carving,
James works for Jane Beebe at PDX Contemporary Gallery.
- It's, I think, interesting for a working artist
to see the nuts and bolts of how a gallery works.
- I've been doing preparator work in art handling
for over 10 years.
So it's nice to have a steady income
to be able to know, well, if my art's not selling,
I can still pay my rent and pay for my studio space,
and, you know, eat (laughs).
I just want every little section of it
to be interesting to look at,
so that the longer you look at it,
the more you're noticing some little word,
or maybe there's, like, a little eyeball looking out at you
that you didn't notice.
As many little hidden details as I can get.
They generally tell me when they're done,
so then I just move on to the next one (laughs).
- Nice, can I take a picture of you with it?
- Sure. - Okay.
(James chuckles)