Scott McCarney always loved books when he was growing up. When he was assigned papers in grade school, he would reformat them into books. Now a teacher of bookbinding and print media at the Rochester Institute of Technology, McCarney creates art that depicts books as more than just text on a page.

Artist McCarney’s ‘VisualBooks’ exhibition kicked off on Nov. 1 at the Light Work studio, displaying his book art. McCarney transforms books in a variety of ways, sometimes tearing books apart and piecing them back together. The books he works with range from encyclopedias to textbooks and poetry books.

‘All of the information inside books are contained,’ McCarney said. ‘The book itself is an experience with a confined object — it’s personal, but also a tool used for outward communication.’

VisualBooks kicks off the Society for Photographic Education’s regional conference at Light Work. The SPE conference will explore how photographers face a different world of publishing today. There are fewer opportunities to work with book publishers and more options for photographers to self-publish their work, including binding their own books and publishing online.

Light Work supports emerging and underrepresented artists and looks for artists who take risks, said Light Work Director Hannah Frieser.

McCarney’s relationship with Light Work started more than 20 years ago when he completed a residency at the studio in the 1980s. Back then, McCarney’s work was more confined to the darkroom, Frieser said. Now, not only does he work and alter books he collects, but he also crafts his own books with his own photography.

McCarney studied graphic design in college and had several residencies around the Central New York area. His hobbies and experience culminated into the book art he creates and sculpts today.

‘McCarney has gone very sculptural with his books,’ Frieser said. ‘With the SPE conference coming to Light Work, it was like the perfect marriage for exhibiting McCarney at our studio this week.’

Books are personal and friendly, McCarney said, and creating them into sculptural pieces takes a bit of engineering. He works with books because it is a way not to take them for granted. He not only takes books apart, but also creates books with his own graphic designs and photography. The Robert B. Menschel Media Center lays out his books, meant for browsing.

His pieces reflect the evolution of books into e-books as technology advances, McCarney said. They do not open or close and readers can’t turn a page.

‘I get excited about the materials of the book, though,’ McCarney said. ‘The physicality of the book is an ephemera of experience.’

For one piece, ‘The Encyclopedia,’ McCarney dissected a set of one of the earliest encyclopedias made in France. During the 1700s, printing images and text in the same book was impossible, McCarney said. To join the two books, McCarney took squares of each encyclopedia and meshed them together. He scanned a picture of his handprint and used it as a model portrayed in his final piece. The small squares of images represent the dark backdrop, and small squares of text represent his hand.

This image is a huge mural. From far away, viewers can see the white handprint. Up close, the image appears pixilated, like what appears on a computer.

‘Sculptures and paintings throughout museums are confined and concealed behind glass,’ McCarney said. ‘With my books, the art isn’t just confined within a portfolio or plainly bound in a book. It explores the different values of the book.’

[email protected]

Published on November 1, 2011 at 12:00 pm