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Artist conjures mysterious symbols from the ghosts of forgotten books [1]

['Mark Frauenfelder']

Date: 2025-08-13

Artist Barry McWilliams is transforming vintage European book pages into mysterious symbols and abstract drawings, offering the collected works as a limited-edition zine through Kickstarter.

The project, titled "Shapes, Symbols, and Sigils," features hand-drawn artwork created on rescued book pages, where text remains partially visible beneath layers of gesso. Barry drew the shapes without planning, letting lines wander naturally into forms that sometimes suggest stories or meanings, while others remain purely abstract.

The 36-page color zine will be A5 size (approximately 5.8" x 8.3") and is already more than halfway funded, having raised $348 of its $701 goal on Kickstarter. Original artworks are also available as add-ons, each piece sized to A4 dimensions.

"Drawing on found paper is more consequential than drawing on other mediums," says Barry. "It's not an infinite resource and it needs to be found before you even think about picking up a pen. Not every old book is an equally good medium. Sometimes it's just a feeling."

Previously:

• Amazing, surreal science fiction photo-collages

• The powerful collage images of Uğur Gallenkuş

• Winston Smith's 'vintage collage series' prints for sale

• Wildlife made from collaged maps

• The Collage Art of Joe Webb

• Collage.com lets you print virtually anything on anything

• 'Point of View,' a collage series by Beth Hoeckel

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[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2025/08/13/artist-conjures-mysterious-symbols-from-the-ghosts-of-forgotten-books.html

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