Poets & Writers Theater

In this video clip, artist Cara Barer transforms discarded books into compelling sculptures that reveal the soulful aesthetic and remarkable creative power hidden in the pages of unwanted books. These works reflect the ephemeral nature of meaning and existence and, most strikingly, the precarious future of books in print.

Amaranth Borsuk's Between Page and Screen, forthcoming from Siglio Press, is an "augmented-reality" book of poems. Think of it as a digital pop-up book: Get a copy of the book (or print out a preview and try it for free at betweenpageandscreen.com), turn on your computer's webcam, and the animations will appear on your screen.

"Then a Ploughman said / Speak to us of Work." This video showing the process of printing a short excerpt from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet may be a wee bit slow at times, but what did you expect? It's letterpress!

This feature-length documentary, directed and produced by Doug Wilson, explores how the Linotype type casting machine (called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by Thomas Edison) revolutionized printing and society and had a suprisingly powerful impact on people's lives. 

This helpful video from AbeBooks demystifies the terms used to describe the physical parts of a book, including boards, hinge and joint, leaf, endpapers, book block, and plates.

Didn't like that novel? Disappointed with that poetry collection? Consider turning it into art using the simple steps in this brief how-to video.

Before he designed the cover and special section of our current issue, Jim Tierney developed this series of book cover designs for his senior thesis project at Philadelphia's University of the Arts.

Brian Dettmer, whose art has appeared in past issues of Poets & Writers Magazine, explains his process of altering used books, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, and medical guides, to create intricate three-dimensional works that reveal new interpretations of the original books.