The Stacks

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Proof of Life…
Book Life Winston Pei Book Life Winston Pei

Proof of Life…

So, yeah, it’s been another hot minute since we’ve added something the stacks here at the Butterflies & Aliens Library but life is like that sometimes. And while we’re still in the thick of things, we thought we’d better pop our heads up and at least say hi…

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Frankensteining Frankenstein
The Book as Performance Winston Pei The Book as Performance Winston Pei

Frankensteining Frankenstein

At the When Words Collide festival in 2021, towards the end of a workshop on Altered Books, I mentioned that the next project I was pondering was something to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, riffing off the central theme of the story to assemble a copy of the book made up of parts of different editions.

My small but mighty audience was intrigued, and we decided to plan a workshop around that idea for WWC 2022…

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Video: An Introduction to Altered Books
The Book as Performance Winston Pei The Book as Performance Winston Pei

Video: An Introduction to Altered Books

Altered Books: When Your Finished Book Becomes Another Artist’s Raw Materials is the second of two session that I had the opportunity to present at this past weekend’s When Words Collide festival for readers and writers.

I think it is important to point out that the description in the conference program for this session starts with a trigger warning that I highlight again here:

Trigger Warning: This presentation may contain content disturbing to some readers, authors, and booklovers!

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Video: The Book as Object, Sculpture, & Performance
The Book as Performance Winston Pei The Book as Performance Winston Pei

Video: The Book as Object, Sculpture, & Performance

This past weekend, I had the joy and honour of sharing an encore presentation of The Book as Object, Sculpture, & Performance at the When Words Collide festival for readers and writers. I presented this session for the first time back in 2019 in Calgary, Alberta, when the conference was still live. Getting to present it again online, this time as part of the 2021 virtual conference, means I now have a video record… well, of this one performance of it at least!

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Books as Wall Art: A Practical Guide
Book Adjacent, Book Life Winston Pei Book Adjacent, Book Life Winston Pei

Books as Wall Art: A Practical Guide

This year is the tenth anniversary of When Words Collide, an annual readers and writers conference based in Calgary, Alberta. Today I had the privilege of delivering an encore presentation of my session on Books as Object, Sculpture, and Performance.

This post is not about that presentation.

But it was sparked by it, and by this photo from my slide deck…

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