Brian Dettmer’s Book Dissection

Brian Dettmer is an artist hailing from Chicago was has earned the title of ‘book surgeon’. With the precision of a surgeon, using scalpels and hundreds of x-acto blades, he carefully peels though different layers of the books selectively removing sections from pages to expose contents underneath.

In this work I begin with an existing book and seal its edges, creating an enclosed vessel full of unearthed potential. I cut into the surface of the book and dissect through it from the front. I work with knives, tweezers and surgical tools to carve one page at a time, exposing each layer while cutting around ideas and images of interest. Nothing inside the books is relocated or implanted, only removed. Images and ideas are revealed to expose alternate histories and memories. My work is a collaboration with the existing material and its past creators and the completed pieces expose new relationships of the book's internal elements exactly where they have been since their original conception

Dettmer is originally from Chicago, where he studied at Columbia College. He currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. His works have been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Mexico and Europe. He has had solo shows in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta and Barcelona, and has exhibited in Mexico City, Berlin and London.