Paper Cutting: Contemporary Artists, Timeless Craft

Gorgeous and inspiring, this book covers a range of paper cutting styles. It has a captivating introduction and photographs that allow you to appreciate both the detail and magnitude of the pieces showcased. I have not entirely determined what the organizational system is (artist names are not alphabetical), but I am usually just flipping through it to find something that interests me at that moment so I don't really need to understand the format.

This is full of most incredible art talent. It gives good bio’s of the artists as well as beautiful selections of their work. It also covers a variety of different cutting styles with paper. Some blew my mind as an artist!

This is a truly beautiful book. The artists' works in cut paper are difficult to believe in their concepts and intricacy. The photographic rendering is also gorgeous. My only serious complaint is the cover, which strikes a very different style than the contents. Many potential buyers, I fear, will not pick it off the shelf and open it up, and might love it if they did. If you agree, try to ignore it. Don't judge a book... and all that. The inside is nothing like the outside. I do agree with a few others that more details about scale and process could add another dimension, and that a larger format might be a valuable option. But just as it is, I highly recommend this stunning compilation.

As easily as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, Laura Heyenga's compilation pulls us into the magical land of paper cutting. Page by page we encounter amusements, contemplations, and oddities that reveal the depth flat paper can convey in the hands of 26 paper artists of diverse talent. Natile Avelia's introduction briefly covers history and provides important, well-written narrative snippets on each artist. To readers' delight, Rob Ryan was chosen to preface the book. So why four stars? My list of criticisms, preferences & observations: Every photo is of a finished piece. I crave process shots beyond the two small photos of two separate pieces in the introduction. The materials list for each piece is pitiful. Some examples: paper and acrylic paint; paper and emulsion; black paper. Uhm, what kind of paper? What weight? What type of acrylic? Few pieces show scale. No measurements are provided. Some have reference in relationship to walls and books. The very last page with Hina Aoyama's delicate cutting held in a palm accentuates the importance of scale to the viewer. I would have liked specific history on a few pieces: the amount of time a selected work took, how it was born, the difficulty. Fortunately at the beginning of each gallery we are provided a paragraph of insight into the artist's overall motivations. Each artist's work covers 4-8 pages. On many pages a photo fills just 55% of the page with small type at the bottom of the page. (The type gives the title, year and/or material used.) Those small photos obscure the art. A larger easier-to-read font should have been used. I'd have paid more for a better layout. Nearly all the featured artists are art/design graduates. I think Nikki McClure was the only autodidact. I'd have enjoyed seeing more self-taught artists. (Nikki's bio in the book delights.) But, this does not diminish the featured artists, each deserves their place in this creme de la creme book. The majority of pieces are ethnic neutral. No papel picado, wycinanki, kirie, etc. That's an observation, not a gripe. Much of the artists' work is available for viewing on the web. (But really, how handy is that?) Biases and shortcomings aside, the book contains variety, surprise, skill and joy. Life tumbles from one page to the next. Paper Cutting lays an engaging visual feast at our fingertips and is worth the groceries forfeited to buy it.

The images and artists chosen for this book are beautiful and cover a pretty wide range of contemporary paper cut artists around the world. The issue for me is the less than stellar introductions to each artist. They read like a first year fine arts undergrad wrote them. There's minimal information on the artist and their background and hyper general descriptions regarding the artist's motivations and recurring themes that appear within their work. For my money, I would have preferred either 1) complete, well-written bios/introductions to each artist featured, especially focusing on how they've contributed to contemporary paper cut artwork as a genre in some unique/interesting way OR 2) skip the intros entirely and provide us with just the basics: images, title, materials, and date. Anybody who's reading this book probably has enough experience with fine arts/design to suss out the subtleties of each artist's style for themselves. All in all? 5 star work, 2 star writing. Worth the price as a fun reference book, but don't go into it looking for special insights about the works featured. (To be fair, we probably should have picked up on that from the cookie analogy on the first page... Really guys?)

I bought multible books on cutting this day, and this book surprised me most it’s thick some useable patterns lots and lots of pictures of different artist work and with tons of ideas to use along the way plus much of this book art work is expert level very pricey pieces I still am glad to have it and it does have some nice patterns for for every level

I was captivated by every artwork in this book and moved by the stories behind them. Each piece was deeply personal, beautifully reflecting the artist's soul. Truly inspiring!

Beautiful book! Paper cutting, paper sculpture ... anything to do with paper is truly an art-form and can be used for so many projects. From small cards to enormous sculptures!! This book gives you many ideas to work from. This New Year will find me working on paper, paper, paper!

Un bon rapport qualié prix pour découvrir l'univers et les artistes du papiers découpés, parfois un peu léger sur les photos !!

Beautiful book, full of inspiration. I bought a used copy and found an extra surprise sucked inside the cover in the form of several papercut christmas decorations. Completely unexpected and so pretty!

This purchase was made after being introduced by a friend to the works of Danish artist, Peter Callesen, who is featured among several paper cutting artists in this book. It is an art form that I confess to knowing nothing about, up until that introduction. What is intriguing is how artists, with nothing more than paper and a sharp blade, can express so powerfully ideas that hover between two- and three-dimensional states, between craft and artistic expression. In works where the lace-like delicacy of the paper cuts contrasted starkly with severe subject matter, such as mortality, the expression was most potent and effective. In an age where digital art seems to dominate, this is a refreshing art form to see, and this book is a good introduction to some of its practitioners.

Such an amazing collection of papercutting artists. I completely enjoyed this glimpse at so many different styles of paper cut art. It is truly fantastic what can be done with paper, scissors, glue.

美術書です！ 美術館ではなかなか切り絵を見る機会がないので、購入してたくさんの作家さんの作品を見られて良かったです(^-^)