“I’m always picking things up and taking them domestic with me, says Matthew Craven. “Just general knick knacks.” His finds include succulents, strange rocks, or little bits of pottery that he displays in his domestic inTopanga Canyon,Los Angeles. But out of all of the things he collects, which also includes records and vintage NBA t-shirts, or perhaps his strangest and largest collection is of school textbooks. The books generally date back to the 1950s or 60s,but “the older the better” says Craven. After finding a copy he likes in a moment-hand book store, he’ll trawl through the internet, and contacting sellers that may have many more in storage – generally schools or libraries. “Personally,it satisfies me to be able to find these weak materials and preserve them in some little way possible,” he says. He then uses these books as source material for intricate collages, or in which every element from the images themselves to the paper they’re stuck on are made out of found materials. Part of what satisfies him about this work …
Source: bjp-online.com