UPDATE 6/16:
Congratulations to Libby, the winner of our Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut contest! Libby teaches art at an elementary school in Memphis, Tennessee, where the book will live come September. Thanks again to everyone who entered.
Didn’t win? Still want a copy? Black Dog Publishing is kindly offering 40% off the retail price of the book to our readers. Please email them directly to take advantage of this special offer.
With businesses large and small going paperless and the concept of a “paper trail” nearing obsolescence, pressed wood pulp is slowly becoming an anomaly in an increasingly digitized world. However, paper’s 2,000-year history is far from over, thanks to its irreplaceable qualities as an artistic medium. London’s Black Dog Publishing celebrates the humble page with a new book, Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut, which traces paper’s origins and development, champions current innovations in production and recycling, and spotlights the work of more than 50 artists and designers. We chat with the book’s editor, Paul Sloman, to find out more about paper’s rightful place in the 21st century.
Want to win a copy of Paper? Hop down to the comments and let us know: What has paper done for you lately? Be sure to enter your email address, so we can contact the winner!
Flavorpill: With banks, utilities, and newspapers all going “paperless,” is Paper partially a eulogy for the medium?
Paul Sloman: The opposite, in fact. I see these developments as providing an opportunity for a kind of rebirth of the medium. Paper is far from obsolete. I have always though that such a precious medium is wasted on bank statements and train tickets, and it pleases me to think that it will continue to retreat from use in these areas. And as it does so, the quality of paper is likely to improve, as people become more aware of the things that can make it so special. So Paper is meant to signify a reawakening of the potential of the medium, which began as a highly precious material and has only really existed as a mass-produced carrier of disposable information during our rather wasteful twentieth century. This is not to say that it should become a luxury affordable to only a few as it once was – there is no way that will happen. But at least it might be accorded a little more respect.
FP: The book offers an impressive lesson in paper’s long history, while emphasizing that the medium is still evolving. Are you excited by technological advances in the world of paper?
PS: Of course, particularly in the areas of recycling. The destruction of trees to make paper has always been an uncomfortable point for me — and is another reason why it is so good to see banks and other companies going increasingly online — but recycled paper is developing in all sorts of interesting ways. The fact remains that recycled papers will still cost more at the moment, but it is becoming increasingly possible to source affordable recycled papers. And the best are those that embrace their recycled status, complete with inclusions (specks of color or dirt in the paper), as with Bier, a gritty looking paper made from old beer labels. The problem that many people don’t realize with pure white recycled papers is that they actually often tend to do more damage to the environment (albeit in different ways) than unrecycled paper. It is much better to go rough-and-ready with your recycled choices, and it often looks and feels more interesting too.
FP: Paper also celebrates artists and designers who recycle. Do you have a favorite example of paper, reused?
PS: From the book, the recycled aspect really comes to the fore amongst those experimenting in fashion. Gary Harvey’s dress constructed from multiple copies of the Financial Times is brilliant, as and I love the somewhat absurd idea of making dresses from toilet paper — traditionally a recycled medium — that the toilet tissue company Cashmere has championed so wonderfully. And Michael Cepress has done similar things with men’s collars and copies of the Yellow Pages. Cepress aside, this is “concept” fashion. You can’t really wear them. But it prompts you to think more open-mindedly about where paper can be reused. And one of my favorite examples of a practical application of this principle is Jens Praet’s fully functional furniture made out of compressed, shredded documents. So there is still some use for those destroyed bank statements yet.
FP: As more information becomes available digitally, it seems that the value of paper as a tactile experience may increase. Is paper becoming a luxury?
PS: Well, as I mentioned, it will probably become more luxurious in that it will become less of a nuisance and more of a pleasure (I’m being hopeful about the demise of junk mail on the doorstep), but it isn’t suddenly going to cost a fortune. And you’re still going to have mass-produced commodities like cereal boxes and kitchen paper — you can’t mop up your spilt wine with a computer screen. I think its use elsewhere will just be a little more considered, and hopefully in the press and publishing industries, its quality a little better. The material that these things are printed on, after all, is the essential thing that differentiates them from reading online, and I expect it will increasingly play a part in consumers’ decision-making. It is a good time for paper.
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61 Responses
I used my last scrap of paper to send a message in a bottle that got me off this damn desert island!
Have you seen Jen Stark's work with paper? it's beyond beautiful. http://jenstark.com/
Lately paper has inspired me to hold a book swap. After trying to read tropic of cancer on my computer in an attempt to understand the kindle, i find that the weight of a good book is so much more pleasing.
-patrician
http://bombshellsandbirds.blogspot.com
Lately paper has inspired me to hold a book swap with local independent used book stores.
Oh and Jen Stark's work with paper is simply gorgeous, definitely check her out http://www.jenstark.com/
I use vintage paper to make beautiful altered books ;)
I make a wide variety of marks on paper just about every day.
paper totally won the rochambeau tournament for me. beats rock, ever time.
I use the pages of old, yellowed books as collage material for my paintings. The pages are applied to the canvas and layers of paint and ink are layered on top. The words are still visible underneath the image.
I collaged the very first version of my very first children's book. Ultimately became uncollaged illustrations, but the collaged version was oh so much fun to put together.
We cannot have enough paper in our house. As a professional creative with 2 young, highly creative kids we keep each other inspired daily with constant pictures, books, hats, decorations. Color, cut, bend, glue, tape, staple…on and on. We create fun and solutions to what they want to accomplish. We love the results! So when the kids need something for pretend… we all create… we don't buy…. well I guess we buy more paper when it runs out. : )
I use special pieces of paper with numbers and pictures to buy stuff.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing.
enjoying the work of aimee lee making traditional paper in korea http://aimeelee.net/, my own thirty years of journals transformed into a chandeleir, giant rice paper hands in silver paper handcuff piñata made for an art show in chelsea, paper mache in laos with children-small sculptures of animals, recycling paper in santiago de cuba for collagraphs, paper engineered my pop-up book on language,made 111 Brooklyn Passports with the dry flattened pulp of our dear trees, yes-it all feels most recent to me!
Paper is a charismatic addiction of the senses which opens doors to fantasies and worlds of the imagination. From drawing to painting, printmaking and bookmaking, in construction and destruction (like when I start a fire) we have been papered all our lives with its expanding and creative possibilities.
i used paper to write a poem while sitting on the beach. thank you, paper.
i love combining layers and layers of transparent paper with white silkprint
If it ever disappears I'll miss the phrase ' littered with paper'
Paper is an essential surface for my drawings. And you can't cut LCDs.
Paper comsumes my life!
notes, notebooks, and more notes…handmade japanese paper-love, love, love it!
As a collager I horde the stuff
for me it's post-its and the weekly papers…without my post-it reminders to take my lunch for work out of the fridge in the morning, or being able to read film reviews in the voice or the nypress, I would be an absolute mess. The mobility and even the texture of our paper fulfills some of our most basic, recreational and aesthetic desires.
I may be one of the few who keeps them, but the atm receipt for me is priceless. Constantly depositing cash/checks or making sometimes inordinate amounts of withdrawals (on the weekends of course), I save the receipts to remind me to check the status of my deposits as well as confirm the amounts I'm spending when I'm on the move and don't have internet access. And in the rare case the bank makes an error, paper is proof enough.
I use paper to unambiguously tell my customers how much they owe me.
The book "Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut" can go into my student library. I will also use it to show the students where paper comes from, how it can be used, and how it is recycled. I'm really excited about this book.
I'm an elementary school art teacher in inner-city Memphis. I teach about 500 students a week. 99% of my students are African-American with the other one percent comprised of Latino youth who use English as a second language. At the beginning of the year I teach my students how precious our paper is. I use the books "Ish" and "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds to teach them that even their "mistakes" can be turned into beautiful works of art. We use both sides of our paper in class, and I have to approve of any start overs. This is to save our resources.
I also had a previous life as an artist. I did a huge paper cut installation at 33 Flatbush in downtown Brooklyn. I love paper too!
I'm an avid book-folder. The sculptural possibilities of folded pages is endless.
As a paper cut artist and letterpress printer, I don't think I could imagine a world where paper is completely obsolete. I am thoroughly enjoying its transition from commodity to art (or maybe its just the transition of how I see/use paper). This week paper got me out of my computer screen rut when I altered a kids' board book for my husband's first father's day.
I use scraps of paper and sticky notes to keep track of everything. my desk is covered. I get made fun of quite a bit for it, but at least I don't forget very much.
I've long been a paper artist and afficiando. I've made my own paper, I collage with all sorts of fine art papers and vintage empherma. My studio is stacked with old magazines and books that I use to repurpose into new collage artworks. I've taught paper mache art to children, and in turn they teach me. The medium of paper as a basis for my artwork always continues to inspire me. It's strong and lightweight at the same time and can be morphed into a variety of projects and constructions.
I write my thoughts down on little scraps of paper in an attempt to hold on to the transience of thinking.
je suis collagiste and poet & would be lost without paper for: first and foremost, books & art supplies 2) folded-down corners of scrap receipts for nail cleaning necessitated by long subway rides to buy specialty paper at New York Central 3) romping through the piles that accumulate on my desk and all around my feet as i snip, and clip, working away 4) the soft feel of a blank page 4) the postcards that carry me back to places i've known 5) the rejection notes (small, hyper-photocopied, anon.), the acceptance letters (8 1/2 x11, heavy stock, signed personally by a lovely editor) 6) the doorstop that a box of new reams becomes before i use them up 6) the artifacts of my life: kitchen table notes, receipts, letters, cards, doodle catchers 7) the satisfaction of recycling all that can be recycled. am looking forward to adding a book to the library. . .
There is still something special about receiving a piece of mail from a friend. The special qualities of that paper letter or card received are mulitiplied now that they are now being replaced by much less thought-filled electronic transmissions.
paper is very important to me. my last use was toilet paper. maybe 20 minutes ago. thank you paper for always being there for me. i love you dearly.
Cover me in paper and throw me to the artists…
Paper is what my college degree will be printed on – the one that I just got at 40 after 7 years of chipping away at the requirements.
I will always love paper. (1) It doesn't take five minutes to boot up, and (2) it doesn't inform me every other day that I should install new and better paper, because the old is a security risk.
paper cuts me. all the time.
When I'm not writing screenplays on my laptop, I'm either writing poems on paper (I refuse to write poetry on a computer), obsessively jotting down to-do and/or shopping lists on paper scraps, or using paper to decorate/redesign shoeboxes and such. I couldn't survive without paper; it's where my creativity takes rein!
During the past couple days, paper has kept stains off my carpet. My kitty has been sick and, well, I don't want to get into specifics so let's just say I had a few old issues of LA Weekly that I had to lay down over the floor. That's right, wall-to-wall paper. (And yes, it saddened me to rip up the magazines without sorting through for eye-catching images/text to include in my next shoebox art.)
My favorite thing to do with paper: use both sides and then recycle. :D
use tiny bits of paper to write haikus.
In the middle of Nowhere Nevada in the middle of summer, on an endless drive across the country, my very elderly dog in the back of my 1982 Toyota tercel; it's 12 Noon and 112º in the shade. My ancient air conditioner is putting out a tepid but life-saving wheeze. Suddenly my passenger side window disappears into the door panel with a definitive thunk. Instantly all the cooler air rushes out, the desert inferno blasts in, and the dog gives a groan he's been saving up for his last words. I pull over onto the heat blasted shoulder of the empty highway and scrabble ineffectively at the door, fishing for the lost window. Nothing short of complete door dissection with heavy machinery is going to work. I'm S.O.L., and in a panic about my dog, who is flopped in the meager shade under the car, panting like a race horse. Suddenly, my eyes alight on that morning's copy of the Wendover Beagle, where I had tossed it in the foot well. Paper! I flip open the glove box. Scotch Tape! In a matter of minutes I cover the offending gap with several sheets of tape reinforced newsprint. Success! Dog loaded, air-conditioner cranked, I'm back in the saddle, headed for the green hills of California. Paper – don't leave home without it.
i been using used/scrap paper to draw, gift wrap and collect for future creative use
Paper has given me an outlet for creativity & a sense of community.
This year I "reclaimed" scraps of wallpaper & colored poster-paper & made homemade Christmas cards in unconventional Colors of disco ball Pink & rich Purples. Each individually cut tree was a treat to my friends, as like snowflakes not two were alike. As well as being a form of mindless Zen therapy. :)
i just wrote a really bad song on a sheet of college-rule notebook paper.
I had a bit of personal job satisfaction today when I finished re-attaching the cover of a book for the school secretary. (It was a hardcover collection of stories that her kids had damaged — front cover torn off and spine-back detached.) It was a challenge because the type of cloth used for the cover (a kind of buckram) does not allow for book repair tape to stick to it. I let the problem stew in my mind for about 2 weeks until I planned a good strategy. The only solution was to take both covers off, attach new end-papers to make the cover and spine-back one continuous piece (using good watercolour paper because it is made of cotton), making a new fly-leaf and gluing it directly to the existing spine, then attaching the cover-piece to the fly-leaf with double-sided carpet tape. I even touched up the colour of the damaged cover joints with red-marker (to match the cover) so that the new end-papers underneath were not so obvious).
In the end, the real test of my labour was to hold up the book just by the covers and let the repaired parts take the weight of the dangling pages. It held. And the nice thing about using the watercolour paper is it's ability to bend and fold and crease without breaking. The expense wasn't that much (only $3 worth of watercolour paper for the end-papers and fly-leaf, about $1 worth of carpet tape, and maybe 50 cents worth of acrylic gel medium paint which makes a great adhesive for books because it dries flexible — I use it for mounting jigsaw puzzles).
The end result though is that the outside of the cover itself was left un-touched — you can see "wear" but not the damage. I do have book repair tape that is like duct tape, but that would have looked ugly (even with a colour match) and would not have held as well as what I did.
Part of a day in the life of an elementary school librarian.
Paper has lately given me… a papercut
I keep paper scraps to use for scratch paper for school work
paper of all types has allowed me to explore my creativity in new ways after 35 years. I am now collaging and
"recycling" all types of paper-pictures, text and design into new art forms …and opening up myself in new and fulfilling ways that also make statements on a wide range of topics and give others pleasure.
Additionally I am also a part of a magazine that we founded to cover the lower east side 6 years ago which delivers news and politics and culture to our community –delivered into their homes monthly and free….
Paper has changed my life in so many new ways lately…
it's my fly swatter. my sun shade on the beach. my toilet companion and. my drink coaster. it's the benefactor of my nasal contents during flu season. my shopping list and the reason why i have a mailbox. it's the recipient of my thinks and my thoughts. It's my cake liner, my diapers and my panty liners. It's not going away yoo soon. i hope!
OK so I love to use the computer to write my potential literary work of genius, but paper is so multi-functional. I love using it in my art projects–drawing, painting, collaging. Just today I went to a workshop and took loads of notes on my notebook paper, then went to a burger joint that gave me my lunch in a paper bag and then I rode the bus and paid with my dollar bill made of paper.
I finished my masters thesis… yey
Lately I've been nostalgic for the paper dress I wore to a friend's birthday party when I was five.
I use paper from magazines and old journals to make my découpage works and to create customized greetings cards and gift papers!
Here my big work in progress:
http://moviematica.blogspot.com/2009/06/retro-di-...
Paper is a beautiful material. I've got a rug in my living room made from twisted paper strands. I concocted a paper dress for a 60s party that guests took for the real thing. I made paper star ornaments from a pile of Design Within Reach catalogs (minimalist graphic design lends a great quality to the ornaments!) And, I work everyday at a desk made of cardboard. It's simple and sturdy and has developed its own patina. Oh paper, where would I be without you…
Like a number of people who've posted, and because I'm a designer, I like to make everyday objects with paper. one such series are plates and bowls from a few different years of tax returns and paystubs – the first one, tax bowl 2005, is a simple, slump-molded paper bowl made from a pulped copy of my tax return that year – I mean how else can you deal with so many pages of something with that kind of information on each and every page? I think paper is the un-sung modeling material of the design world. It's wonderful.
After I've spotted the paper punch in the office, I've cleaned it up keeping the white confetti into my pockets. I don't remember receiving so many smiles from people whom have something blown in their face ever.
Paper allows me to discover the past, record the present, talk to the future, and write down fake phone numbers from sexy ladies.
Hello Ana Poda, Your story about the paper punch confetti was delightful. It speaks of happiness. Thank you for that image. I did smile. cheers, Robert.
i love using old magazine pages/paper to fold and paste into fun envelopes. people don't get snail mail enough these days and the unique paper makes it even more of a treat.
I used a giant roll of paper to draw a giant nude picture of my boyfriend – and that only used up a small part of this roll I got – the possibilities of the blank sheet are ENDLESS.
I use paper for everything in my everydaylife! but I specially use it to make drawings, and take notes in my sketchebooks.
Thank you Robert! I'm smiling at your smile :) I wish all of us could be happy with small and simple things!
Hello,
I am a paper artist based in India and I totally agree with you about recycled paper. I am one of the few rebellious artists in the country who has stuck with his style and use of recycled paper. I use only recycled paper in my work and I have made it profitable too. It started out as a hobby eight years back and today its a full fledged global business.
I would like to share the words of Jan Moulder, which I completely relate to "My work is an expression of my soul and a manifestation of the enchantment of the natural world. I am honored to be the conduit for this utterance. As I have worked with this medium, I have moved into the deeper rhythm of my life and have become aware of the magic that surrounds us all. My hope is that my work will touch others in such a way that they, too, can feel the magic."
I just hope I can get one of your books here in India.
My blog: http://anandprakash.com/
Company website: http://www.anandzcreation.in/