PHOTOS: What to do with that old atlas? Rip it apart, page by page, and make it a work of art

The internet hasn’t been kind to reference books. How many of us still reach for an encyclopedia to answer our questions?

Artist Brian Dettmer has a unique way to celebrate these anitquated works: destroying them. 

It's a literal form of "creative destruction." Dettmer carves intricate sculptures out of encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical guides, art books, historical volumes and atlases.

He begins by sealing the edges of a book with epoxy to create a solid object. Then he uses knives, tweezers, and surgical tools to carve away one page at a time. In some ways, Dettmer is more of an excavator than a sculptor. “I have no idea what’s coming on the next page. It’s almost like reading with a knife,” he explains.

Dettmer cuts around images and ideas of interest, layer by layer, exposing “alternate histories and memories” embedded deep in the book’s contents. The artist never inserts or collages inside the books, only removes. But the juxtaposition of words and images often seems miraculous.

Some of Dettmer's sculptures look as though he peeled back the cover and exposed a little world that had been waiting inside. With others, he takes a more three-dimensional approach, turning a book inside out or combining multiple volumes into one shape.

When e-book holdouts talk about the importance of the book as a physical object, this is not what they mean. Yet Dettmer's cutting and carving poignantly demonstrate that the printed book is a uniquely dense and beautiful medium. There will probably never be an app for this.

See photos of some of his works: