Kelly Campbell Berry's Altered Book Art

Who needs canvas and paint, when you have books?

Kelly Campbell Berry is an altered book artist from Oklahoma who runs a store on etsy.com. Her work is a mixture of craft, collage, and sculpture.

Armed with old tomes and an x-acto knife, she takes found objects and illustrations from beloved books and uses them to bring stories to life.

Depicting classics like Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" to modern favorites, like George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones," Berry's work is incredibly detailed and full of depth. Old books are roughly hollowed out and mounted in shadow boxes, then layered with images and clippings from the stories they depict.

Each illustration is precisely cut and carefully arranged--some obscured by shadow, some dangling off the edge of the page. Small touches, like snippets of velvet ribbon, bits of wood, and slivers of glass, add texture and intrigue.

What's impressive about Berry's work is the fact that you don't necessarily need to know the stories depicted to appreciate it; because of the images she chooses and the way she composes them, her pieces offer their own abridged versions of the original stories and leave much up to the imagination. Some people may scoff at the idea of cutting up a book (as someone who cringes at cracked spines and dog-eared pages, I can relate), but there's definitely something beautiful about re-purposing an old piece of art for the sake of creating more art.

Not only is Berry keeping these stories alive, but she's giving us new ways to appreciate them.

You can visit Berry's store at :http://www.etsy.com/shop/artfuliving?ref=shopsection_shophome_leftnav. Her pieces usually run upwards of $100, which isn't much considering the time and effort that go into each one.

These little babies would add some fun to a nursery or library wall. If I could afford the splurge, I'd buy one in a second.