Book 34   The Burning Shore. Penn, C. (2009) (Fig. 32).  The Burning Shore.  Unique altered book.  The Burning Shore coated with paper clay and fired.  33cm  x 23 x 10cm . Book 34.  Collection: Cheryl Penn.

The Burning Shore and Pompeii  were inspired by the titles of the books of the same name.  I  researched Yohei Nishimura’s work as part of the section on artists who alter books as part of my dissertation.  I coated The Burning Shore in paper clay and it was fired to 1000C. The result is an extremely fragile work which, although illegible, is intended to represent the indestructible nature of book knowledge.

Further reading has revealed that Nishimura no longer coats his books in clay slip; rather, he has begun to work with books where  he fires “books at high temperatures without applying clay to them. Instead of fire mediating between paper and clay, the tension of paper and fire appears, unmediated. Fire becomes merely a material. Paper is [usually] reduced to ashes and collapses when burnt.  However, a book retains a hint of its form, even at temperatures over 1000C and becomes beautiful white ruins -ruins that have lived through ages and are on the point of collapse” (Nishimura, 2006).

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