I was first drawn to old books when I started creating Altered Art Books about 9 years ago. A vintage book's gorgeous covers and dated fonts were hard for me to resist and if not enough, the earthy smell of an old book could draw me in like a heavy pheromone. Always waffling between my guilt of tearing up old books (for artful purposes) and justifying it with an earth-friendly, Go-Green mentality, I never experienced regret until very recently. "Romola" by George Eliot. After removing several brittle pages to cut into delicate strips, a calling card slipped out from it's pages... haunting me from the past, a handwritten note. I will never handle an old book with the same disregard again.

   

A nest that I created implementing "paper shred" from an old book.

This is the front of Miss Ferry's calling card.

And her intimate inscription... how I wish I knew who she gave this gift to...

"Some books are meant to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digest; That is, some books are to be read only in parts; Others to be read, but not curiously; And some few to be ready wholly, and with diligence and attention."  -Francis Bacon, Of Studies

A gorgeous drawing that is in the front of the book.