Image courtesy of Aron Packer Gallery
A colleague of mine showed me the work of Brian Dettmer, and I was very impressed. I don’t usually go for this type of artwork because it seems rather contrived and unoriginal. In some ways, it reminds me of one of my last favorite artists, Joseph Cornell, but I think Dettmer’s attention to detail and painstaking process sets him apart. As the Aron Packer Gallery says about him:
Brian Dettmer’s carved books are intricate creations, which seek both to seduce the eye and provoke the mind. Through the cut open cover of a book the viewer sees layers of specifically selected text and illustration carved from the pages of the book. Through the gaps in an architectural drawing or perhaps the chambers of the human heart, one can see a word peeking through, perhaps a clue to the larger meanings of the piece. These pieces seek to bridge the gap between a medium’s form and its message. Dettmer manages to use the contrasting layers of image and text to explore the conveyance of information, as well as being able to get the viewer to examine what that can mean.
That sums it up…
