In my last post I was talking about how I had a connection with that book and how that book itself was a copy and there is loads of them out there. This got me thinking, about how the books that I am (I quote a person who has seen my work) “destroying books, and that is not ok.” These are books from charity shops that probably lots of people have read over time, which means they have probably touched the hearts and minds of many individuals. These people would of had connections with the characters and everyone envisions these characters differently.
I was walking around a book shop in town when I came across a section called collectable books this got me thinking. These books probably haven’t been read by many people compared to some of the best sellers. Yet these books themselves are sort after. I started looking at the prices of some of these book and some of them were very expensive in my opinion, considering the condition that they were in.
I then remembered a workshop that was put on by the uni. It was a bookbinding course where we had two book binders come in and talk about their job and what it entailed. They spoke about the value of these book that they were asked to repair. They also told us stories about the most common damages there was and the way the books had been treated such as water damage.
This got me thinking about the way people would react to seeing an old book damaged and if it would even matter to them if they didn’t know the story, or if the book itself just wasn’t that interesting to them. I then started to think how precious the information in these books must be to people if they are willing to preserve them and how would people be affected, not having that information any more.
This then posed an interesting question to me one that I am still pondering to this day; the value of work. Am I adding value to my work because I am using materials that cost more, therefore the end result is worth more because what I have used had value in the 1st place or is it worth less, because of the actions that I will take become irreversible. The way I see it at this moment in time, is a book is only as valuable as you see it, in your eyes. So the price that you are willing to pay for it is the same as any other.
But after the feedback I have got from people, I think that other people may beg to differ.
