I’m not generally an advocate for the destruction of books, but then again I wouldn’t say this counts as destruction.

I first stumbled across Brian Dettmer‘s work a few years ago, but today I rediscovered his website and thought I would share it. Dettmer takes books and painstakingly carves them into intricate three-dimensional pieces of art — essentially excavating them as though they were the sites of archaeological digs. That’s why I wouldn’t call it destruction, exactly, but rather preservation in a new form.

If you haven’t heard of or seen these before, I strongly encourage you to browse the galleries on Dettmer’s website — some of the pieces (most of them, actually) are unbelievable.