{"id":52629,"date":"2025-09-30T11:47:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/52629\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:47:17","slug":"maine-artist-turns-unwanted-books-into-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/52629\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine artist turns unwanted books into art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A number of Larry Clifford\u2019s quilts made of books will be on display at the Thomas Memorial Library in Cape Elizabeth throughout the month of October. (Courtesy of Larry Clifford)<\/p>\n

Larry Clifford doesn\u2019t just read books. He harvests them.<\/p>\n

Libraries, bibliophiles and book collectors all over New England know him as the \u201cbook guy,\u201d and they keep him on a short list, calling him whenever there are boxes of old books that need to be hauled off.<\/p>\n

Instead of organizing his titles alphabetically by author name, he sorts them by color, texture and pattern. Instead of cloth and thread, he makes \u201cBiblioQuilts\u201d out of covers, spines and pages.<\/p>\n

A number of these quilts are on display in the Steir Family Gallery at Cape Elizabeth\u2019s Thomas Memorial Library through the month of October. He\u2019s shown his work in commercial galleries and libraries in Maine, including the Bangor Public Library and the Belfast Free Library.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a perfect library show,\u201d said Rachel Davis, the director of Thomas Memorial Library.<\/p>\n

Clifford, based in Hampden, has always been a collector, always admiring older books. In high school, he started frequenting book sales, auctions and estate sales. It eventually became an addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, I\u2019ve accumulated a large number of old, moldy books that have been wallowing in our basement,\u201d he said. Tens of thousands was his estimate.<\/p>\n

His wife told him he needed to do something about it.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Clifford, who has a background in fine art and medical illustration, realized there was probably an art project there. Though not a quilter, he admired the intricacies of the designs, and he researched traditional and contemporary American quilting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audience I\u2019m trying to reach is at the library,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople coming in the door appreciate books. Many of them appreciate art, and when they see the combination of them, they get excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the books Clifford uses were destined for the landfill. \u201cIt\u2019s a rescue mission of sorts,\u201d Clifford said. For a 2-by-2-foot piece, he uses parts from 72 different books.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Larry Clifford works on a quilt in his studio. (Courtesy of Larry Clifford)<\/p>\n

\u201cI always feel sad as a librarian when we have to discard books, but it\u2019s just part of the work of a library,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s very cool to see the books being recreated into art in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It took Clifford a year or two to figure out his creative process, and it\u2019s a tedious one. For each project, he searches through his inventory of old books to find the desired color or pattern. Armed with an X-Acto knife, he cuts the quilt pieces by hand. He used to use a laser cutter, but he switched back after the edges got singed a few times.<\/p>\n

It typically takes him a month to complete a 4-by-4-foot piece.<\/p>\n

When he\u2019s working, he covers his giant work table with piles of different colors and textures.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could almost envision it as a traditional artist, a painter surrounded by little buckets of paint,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll reach for a specific shade or pattern of blue.\u201d On the most recent project, he had 36 to 48 piles on his table.<\/p>\n

Though he cherry-picks the pieces to use in each quilt, Clifford holds onto all parts of the book. He\u2019s currently looking into ways to recycle the brittle yellow pages into his own paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to use every piece of every book and not throw anything away,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s proud to be a hoarder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a disposable society,\u201d he said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s appliances or books, people are very quick to toss stuff out. To me, a lot of these things have character, and they should have an extended life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Book pieces in Larry Clifford\u2019s studio. (Courtesy of Larry Clifford)<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s running out of room, Clifford is constantly growing his collection. He picked up a few boxes from the Blue Hill Public Library last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the hunt. I love going out and talking with folks,\u201d he said. \u201cClearly, they\u2019ve got a love for books as well, and they appreciate what I\u2019m doing with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes, he makes commissioned pieces, often for people looking to remember someone through their ephemera. He\u2019s working with a client who wants him to make two quilts out of her late father\u2019s cherished car and driver magazines, one for her and one for her brother.<\/p>\n

Shari Ellis commissioned a piece because she could not stop thinking about Clifford\u2019s work. She\u2019s an amateur quilter, and she was impressed by his ability to make geometric shapes out of books.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe printed page is just so special,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Ellis visited a piece online at Clifford\u2019s gallery website<\/a> at least once a month after deciding not to purchase it. Her husband surprised her with a similar piece for her birthday. Now it hangs in the dining room in her house in Falmouth, \u201csomewhere we can see it constantly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Clifford charges $400 per square foot. \u201cI\u2019ll never get rich from it,\u201d he said. At this point, he\u2019s hoping to cover the money for gas to pick up books and a little bit of his time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A number of Larry Clifford\u2019s quilts made of books will be on display at the Thomas Memorial Library…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[288,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-52629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}