Sri Lankan artist Kingsley Gunatillake embeds bullets and guns in historical and political books based on his country to reflect upon effects of war in contemporary times.
Gunatillake is among a group of international and Indian artists who are showcasing artworks using books as a medium at an exhibition here.
Titled 'The Reading Room', the artists have used physical books to draw and paint on some of them while carving and tearing up others to depict issues of displacement, war, fantasy, nostalgia or history.
"I take old vintage books and through a process of folding pages of the books, I transform them into what I call book sculptures. There is no cutting and pasting," says artist, Banoo Batliboi.
Batliboi has used old passports and old volumes of the Franklin Library Series, which sports a distinctive cover design embossed in 22 carat gold and even to fashion sculptures.
"I love creating objects that invoke feeling of surprise and curiosity. What excites me is to transform books, which are so familiar, into something so different," she says.
Participating artists hailing from US, Sri Lanka and China have also displayed their art works using books, cards and several such materials.
Deng Yifu's artworks in books drawn from his country China intend to depict consequences of war in modern times.
Artist Zach Stensen from America uses Victorian-era books to reproduce illustrations and drawings he made as a child.
"As an artist I keep a rolling collection of objects and images. These items range from religious kitsch imagery, amateur paintings, Victorian-era books that used lithography to reproduce drawings I made as a child," he says.
Reinterpretation of books taking the forms of abstracting the content through folds and turns can be seen in Indian book artist Samit Das's works.
"To engage with the book is a form of performance and a manner of taking this process further by the use of different materials and images, thus creating different architectural thoughts. This form of expression can allow a contemporary viewer to make a connection between history and the present in an ongoing act," says Das, who claims to have been in this field for over a decade.
