Cultures emerge, become obsolete, and are replaced by new ones. With the vanishing of cultures, we are told that the paper book is bound to die and “new technologies” will change anything concerning our human condition. Montreal-based artist Guy Laramée transforms a set of encyclopedia britannicas into an artwork, breathing in them a new life and intricately carving its pages into vast and rocky landscapes. His work originates from the very idea that ultimate knowledge could very well be erosion instead of an accumulation. So he carves landscapes out of books and he also paints romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. “Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are,” he says. The land visualized repurposes the encyclopedias and breathes in them a new life, nodding to the nostalgia of declining generation of paper books.
