This Into That - Recycling Old Books into Hand-Crafted Book Furniture!

Artist Jim Rosenau turns donated and found books into book shelves and other pieces of furniture

Jim Rosenau was the son and grandson of book publishers, so he grew up in a house with 5,000 books. You could say that he learned how to appreciate books at an early age, not only for their content, but also for their functionality. After reading Nicholson Baker’s essays “Lumber” and “Books as Furniture,” he was inspired to see how he could turn old books into functional pieces of lumber. The end result: This Into That book furniture!

The first paragraph from Jim’s artist statement says, “I was raised with a near-religious relationship to books. Never write in a book. Don’t lose someone else’s place. How to protect its vitally-important spine. Rules pertaining to the avoidance of moisture. And, like all observant families, we were taken once a week to the library for worship.” Just by reading this you can get a sense of just how much Jim cares about books, and why his recycled book creations are so amazing.

Jim carefully chooses books, cures them to ensure moisture content and then stabilizes them so that they are solid. He adds some additional pieces of lumber and voila, a very cool end product! Here are a few of my favorite recycled book designs:

Eat Fat

Woodwork Shelf

Bookshelf for Her

Table of Cases

Larkitechture

And my personal favorite, No, but I sawed the book

Want to see more? Check out the This Into That Online Galleries.

I’m an avid book reader, and I also appreciate artists that find innovative ways to recycle books, so Jim gets a big thumbs-up from me. What do you think?

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