On a recent weekday afternoon, Kim Bayne talks about books the way some men refer to their cars.
It's not the bestseller she's after, but the best bound.
Bayne is among a growing group of Tucsonans partaking in an artsy trend that combines the techniques of stamping, scrapbooking and mixed media collage.
It's called "altered books," and it's changing the way people see literary works.
Old but sturdy unwanted books are creatively cut, glued, painted, sewn, collaged, embellished or stamped into works of art, expressions of self, or conversation pieces.
The book becomes the canvas for new ideas and images, said Bayne, a local altered book instructor who belongs to the largest Yahoo! Altered Book group online, which has about 6,000 members. She also belongs to the International Society of Altered Book Artists.
You know you're hooked when instead of content, you judge a book by its cover, literally, as well as its art potential.
Recently, Bayne stumbled across a book in her daughter's room that "I just wanted to alter," she said.
"There was something about its spine. It was deep enough. It had nice niches in it. I liked the feel of it. I could do some things to the cover. It was getting my creative juices going."
Instead of giving the unwanted book to charity, she recycled it into art.
Shelley Robinson, a commercial artist and stay-at-home-mom, is equally enamored.
She ran across "Altered Books 101" by Beth Cote, six months ago and, "I've been doing it constantly ever since. I've done six books so far."
As she sponge-painted a page in "Dreaming Reality," she said a book she read on witches inspired her to make an altered book about them. It has pullout drawers and a shadowbox resembling a witches' storeroom.
"It takes patience, elbow grease and a lot of sharp razor blades," Robinson said explaining the tedious process of cutting out a niche. "Sometimes there's a theme and sometimes there isn't. You just pick a starting point and go with it.
She decorates her books with store-bought items and things she finds on the ground.
Bayne has used coins, Godiva chocolate bags, and junk mail to create her books.
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