Upcycled Gallery

Upcycled: Bound Journals Transformed

Descriptions for each piece below the gallery.

Spring Tonic by Adrienne Stalek
From: Hygeia, April,1923

Mixed media based on the article “Spring Tonic” on page 10 of Hygeia for April,1923.

Let’s Eat Cake by Alice Austin
From: Hygeia, 1942

Single sheet book printed using hand-set type and antique Austrian wood engravings on 11″ x 17″ Mohawk Superfine paper.
“Facts About Cake You Should Know Now” is an advertisement in the magazine Hygeia, 1942, from the Department of Nutrition and the American Institute of Baking. In the ad, the booklet “Cake Parade” was available for free by writing to the offices at Rockefeller Plaza. I bought a copy on Ebay and took the text headings from each page to make my book.

Hygeia by Alicia Bailey
From: Hygeia, Jan-Dec 1945

Collages made from Hygeia magazines in a pleated spine with pockets binding. Book cloth, bristol board, tyvek, acrylic, magazine pages, PVA.
Sixteen collages created from pages in selected months of the bound set on eight folded, double sided panels, held in pockets created by a pleated spine fold that was probably developed by Hedi Kyle. End pages feature additional images from the magazine’s full color covers. The collages can be removed from their pockets for independent viewing or rearranging.

Joy * Beauty * Life by Amanda Bock
From: Hygeia 1936/7

52 quackery trading cards excerpted from the book Nostrums, Quackery & Pseudo-Medicine (vols. 1-3), housed in “J.B.L. (Joy-Beauty-Life) Cascade” rectal enema box
The story of quackery is a series of bizarre pictures. Whenever a new discovery is made in any field of science, some inspired charlatan is ready to adapt it for personal gain. The charlatan is known by his appearance & by the bombastic claims that he makes concerning his ability to heal disease. Usually he acquires & holds his patients by his personality. He has a good deal of what they call “It” in Hollywood. He is likely to be a tall, commanding figure with long flowing hair. There are few bald-headed charlatans. The charlatan is likely to have after his name a long alphabetical appendage, indicating a degree of knowledge that he does not possess and that was never conferred on him by any university.” (Morris Fishbein, “Quacks & Quackery” Hygeia, July 1936)

Covers by Denise Carbone
From: Hygeia, 1926, 1928, 1941 & 1946.

Covers, pastedown and flyleaf’s from the bound volumes. Mongolian board binding, pink goatskin, and shoddy gold stamping.
I had a feeling that all the crappy library bindings would find their way to the receptacle of doom. I decided to save a few.

Kusudama by Frances Osugi
From: Hygeia, 1938

Repurposed magazine pages, linen thread.
My 93-year old grandmother folds kusudamas (medicine balls) for all her children and grandchildren to have in their homes. It’s an auspicious charm, and we all have the same ones made by her. I wanted to be sure that I could make them too, the same way. The magazine pages from Hygeia, 77 years aged, are perfect in that they are brittle and will fall apart when played with or hung on display for too long. That is no worry because of the design of the kusudama. The power of the kusudama lies in its simplicity – in making and in giving.

That Saboteur in Your Eye by Jacqueline Manni
From: Hygeia, 1943

Water based oil paint, acrylic paint, acrylic medium, and paper on canvas.
I took parts of advertisements in various volumes of Hygeia, 1943, which centered on keeping your vision sharp for the (world) war (II) effort. By removing the words, rearranging the images, and combining with original artwork, an alternate narrative emerged.

Mosaic by Jennifer Rosner
From: Hygeia, 1947-1949

Mosaic of illustration cutouts.
I was very taken by the illustrations for the articles in Hygeia. The designs and colors are very evocative of the time period and I like the way they look cropped and juxtaposed next to each other.

Hygeia Health Poster Playing Cards by Lisa Scarpello
From: Hygeia, 1924

Cardstock & decorative paper, gouache and Hygeia magazine images.
In 1924, Hygeia, a family health magazine published by the AMA, advertised an invitation to high school readers to submit designs for Health Posters. They received hundreds of responses from students around the county. Throughout the year, images of these posters were reprinted in black and white in the magazine. This deck of cards has the original reprints of these posters from Hygeia on one side and hand stamped & hand painted card symbols & characters on the other. Also printed on the poster images are the names & hometowns of the high school students who created them.

Biosphere by Mary Phelan
From: Scientific American, September 1970

Digital Print
The biosphere is the theme of the Scientific American September 1970 issue. The articles throughout the magazine explore the beauty of the world with micro and macro views of nature. I was enthralled with the images being shown. Only after spending time with the magazine did I notice that the ads repeatedly brought up the degradation of the environment and how corporations were trying to solve the problem. I chose to focus on the positive and create images that celebrate the beauty of the world with the hope that the power of nature will overcome the thoughtless abuse of the world by man. I hope I am not deluding myself.

T R A V E L by Maryann Riker
From: Scientific American, September 1956

Binders Board, book cloth, cardstock, mirrors, plastic, paper.
T R A V E L is a Turkish map fold structure that stands independently so that the viewer can see two distinct layers of images of the heavens. The first layer is comprised of images from NASA’s Hubble telescope which hovers above images of 16th century celestial/astrological maps by Andreas Celarius. The one collapsible leg has an acrostic poem entitled T R A V E L by poet, Nancy Scott of Easton, PA. This book demonstrates the history and cosmology of the heavens through the artistic and scientific eye of humanity.

Becky Koch
From Scientific American 1951/Hygeia 1940

Accordion Book: Paper, book cloth, board and ribbon.
This book features five vignettes compiled from various advertisements and article images. These vignettes explore how we relate meaning to images, and how taking a photo out of context can entirely change how the viewer associates with it.

Vita et Mors by Rosae Reeder
From: Scientific American 1955/1966

One of a kind expandable accordion book enclosed within the Scientific American binding. Magazine pages, bound Scientific American magazines and Xerox Transfer.
Vita et Mors is a dos-à-dos one of a kind expandable accordion-fold book enclosed inside the complete structure of bound Scientific American magazines. Within the pages of the book are pockets that hold image cards with facts about Vita et Mors (Life and Death). Definitions are from Webster’s on line and facts are from various medical and informational websites. Quotes are from the writings of Langston Hughes and Lao Tzu.

Red Black White by Ruth Scott Blackson
From: Scientific American, 1972

Collage on graph paper.
The color of the magazine is what struck me first – the striking shades of red, black and white. The abstracted collage is a composite of different text and images extracted from the magazine, (cut into tiny pieces) and put back together again.

Transparent Woman by Sharon Hildebrand
From: Hygeia, November 1936 & June 1937

Box made from paper, board, LED lights, and Vivak containing assorted ephemera and a tunnel book made from Vivak and transparencies.
In 1936 American industrialist S.H. Camp, founder of Camp Scientific Corsets, commissioned the first Woman of Glass. Franz and Fritz Tschakert, preparators for the Dresden Hygiene Museum, made the Transparent Woman. The Tschakerts modeled figures around a statistically average human skeleton, and positioned them in an orant pose. The shell of the body was made from Cellon, an early plastic. Transparent Woman was first exhibited at the Museum of Science in New York. A nationwide tour followed where a physician who presented educational programs accompanied her. Over twenty million people viewed her by 1950 and she became the cornerstone of Camp Scientific Corsets’ advertising campaigns.

Titan II – F111 for James Rosenquist by Thomas Parker Williams
From: Scientific American – January to June 1967

Accordion-fold painting, 7 panels.
I chose a Scientific American volume from 1967 to make an accordion fold painting as a tribute to James Rosenquist’s iconic work F-111 (1964). The advertising and article images from the volume inspired me to integrate them with a background image of a Titan II vehicle as Rosenquist did with the F-111. The work was done with watercolor, acrylic inks, colored pencil and marker on paper. The case for the work contains the source images from the magazines.

Imagination in Space by Valeria Kremser
From: Scientific American 1968

Pop-up folio.
1968 was a year before the landing on the moon. Space exploration was on everyone’s mind. There were so many unknowns. This pop-up tries to capture the wonder of time.