San Francisco-based artist Alexis Arnold transforms found books into sparkling crystallized sculptures, giving unloved publications a second life of sorts.

Utilising borax crystals, Alexis poses the hardened pages of human detritus that, over time, become a new unique artefact worthy once more of our curiosity. I love this idea of upcycled art, even though at first glance I thought these were sugarcoated biscuits (click to enlarge):

“The Crystallized Book Series addresses the materiality of the book versus the text or content of the book, in addition to commenting on the vulnerability of the printed book” Alexis writes on her website. “The crystals remove the text and transform the books into aesthetic, non-functional objects.” Inspired by the discarded books she found, the rise of e-books, and the shutting down of book stores.

View Alexis’ full collection @ https://www.alexisarnold.com/#/crystallized-books/

You ever wish you could eat really nice smelling soap? Y-yeah, me neither. . . .

I found a book once in the city, heck I even found a trolley full of books! I remember being quite overwhelmed with confusion though. If only I was hungry at the time I may have also had a wicked upcycle idea, like food trolley meets deep fried lit tortillas! Damn. . . In another life perhaps, in another life.