“Livros 2,” 2025. Water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 12.99 x 10.63 x 8.27 inches. Artwork photography by Ivan Macedo Dias. All images © Guy Laramée. Courtesy of JHB Gallery, New York.
Just as books hold knowledge, ancient mountains have their own stories to tell. For over two decades, interdisciplinary artist Guy Laramée has been exploring this concept with his ongoing Bookwork. He breathes new life into old, discarded volumes, transforming their pages into dreamlike, geological sculptures.
Laramée currently works from his mountainside studio in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, where he’s inspired by the dramatic peaks of the nearby Pico da Caledônia. In his new series, Livros, the artist uses high-pressure water to carve antique books and strip away their covers. This process allows him to reshape the pages as they dry, transforming these once-forgotten volumes into realistic, weathered rocky formations.
The final pieces are strikingly lifelike and tangible, transporting viewers to distant, otherworldly mountainscapes. At first glance, it’s hard to believe that each miniature peak or cliff was once a book. However, a closer look reveals their stitched bindings and faint traces of printed pages, offering subtle hints of the original content within.
By turning informational books like dictionaries and encyclopedias into mountain-like sculptures, Laramée highlights how we attempt to hold onto knowledge, while nature keeps evolving and reshaping itself over time. Each piece juxtaposes themes of knowledge and history with geology, time, and the environment.
“If you walk into the alleys of any library, you will be amazed at the quantity of knowledge that humans like to pile up on shelves and in their mind,” Laramée told My Modern Met in an interview. “It is only when you realize that there is a world outside this mania that you can come to think that there is something crazy in this.” He added, “Then maybe you can catch yourself wishing that we would all throw this into the garbage bin and start all anew.”
Check out the Livros series below and find more of his work on Guy Laramée’s website.
Artist Guy Laramée breathes new life into old, discarded books, transforming their pages into dreamlike, geological sculptures.
“Livros 2,” 2025.
“Livros 2,” 2025
“Livros 1,” 2025. Water-carved books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer, and metal clip, 6.66 x 9.84 x 5.91 inches
“Livros 1,” 2025
“Livros 2,” 2025
In his new series, Livros, the artist uses high-pressure water to carve antique books and strip away their covers.
“Livros 3,” 2025. Waterblasted books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer. 9.06 H x 10.63 W x 8.27 D inches
“Livros 3,” 2025
“Livros 3,” 2025
This process allows him to reshape the pages as they dry, transforming these once-forgotten volumes into realistic, weathered rocky formations.
“Livros 3,” 2025
“Livros 4,” 2025. Waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 9.84 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches
“Livros 4,” 2025
“Livros 5,” 2025. Waterblasted books, inks, pigments, and acrylic sealer, 11.4 x 15.75 x 9.06 inches
Each piece juxtaposes themes of knowledge and history with geology, time, and the environment.
“Livros 5,” 2025
“Livros 5,” 2025
“Livros 6,” 2025. Waterblasted books, inks, pigments, acrylic sealer. 7.87 H x 14.17 W x 5.91 D inches
“Livros 6,” 2025
