I’m finally getting a start on a piece I’ve had in mind for the last couple of years, titled Rendered Harmless. This will be smaller than originally planned, 41″ x 48″ (1.04m x 1.22m). This involves shredded holiness. While bibles are a dime a dozen at any charity / thrift shop, it’s not so easy to find a used Quran here, so that I’ll probably have to buy new.
So, shredded bible (a start at least.)
Inside the bible was a church card, and I had to smile when I looked at the back of it:
“I feel pretty, oh so pretty.” Someone really liked West Side Story. :D
Are you just sacrificing those two holy books, or do you have others on your list as well?
I like the little card. A touch of personality and… I dunno, I like little found snapshots like that. Makes me wonder about who wrote it and why and a million other things about where they are now.
No, there are others on the list. As many major ones as I can get my hands on, but I’d prefer to not have to purchase them new. It feels strange enough buying them used.
There’s an online outlet for used books, half.com, which used to be independent but is now a tentacle of eBay. I just ran a search for ‘quran’, and they’ve got some copies of the Quran for as little as 75 cents, plus whatever amount for shipping charges.
Addendum to previous post: A half.com search for ‘book of mormon’ yielded a lot of stuff that isn’t actually the Book of Mormon, but a bit of combing thru the results revealed the real thing. As with the quran, prices as low as $0.75, plus whatever the shipping changes are.
A half.com search for ‘bhaghavad gita’ yielded only a pointer to an eBay seller, who’s offering it for $3.89, free shipping.
Oh, I can find used Books of Mormon all over the fucking place, those are also a dime a dozen. No, a nickel. Thanks for the link!
Do you have access to a Friends of the Library bookshop? Sometimes odd things turn up at those, they’re usually pretty cheap, and I like knowing I’m helping the local library.
This looks fascinating and I look forward to more reports as you progress. I know what you mean about shredding books -- it’s taken me a long time to feel okay with just using bits of atlases and dictionaries in my collage.
Anne @ 6:
I’m afraid I don’t. Limited resources here in Dakota. Last time we were thrift store shopping, I was telling Rick I could do a gigantic piece with all the various evangelist books, there are stacks and stacks of the left behind things, a purpose driven life, Pat Robertson crap, all that, but man, I couldn’t do it. Made me feel filthy even thinking about it.
There are some books I don’t have the slightest problem destroying. Depends on what they are.
Totally off-topic, but the phrase “I feel pretty” made me think of the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “Bring out your dead”, where the old guy who is “not dead yet” sings “I feel happy”.
johnson catman @ 8:
It made me think if similar lyrics in “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols. :-)
Caine @ OP:
Looking forward to seeing the end result; sounds interesting.