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Anatomy cross-sections made almost entirely out of old books

By August 19, 2019Arty, News

Lisa Nilsson is an artist from the USA who enjoys playing with a variety of mediums, techniques, and materials to create art. She discovered ‘quilling’, a centuries-old craft technique involving curled and folded strips of paper, after searching through junk one afternoon.

When a friend showed Nilsson a picture of a cross-section of a cadaver, she noticed how beautiful it was, and how similar the moulded shapes and intricate colours were to the ‘quilling’ technique, and decided to merge the two inspirations.

While exploring the quilling technique and creating cross-sections of anatomy, Nilsson tried to keep as accurate as possible, wanting to keep the sculpture as a beautiful piece of art but also recreating the body as best she could.

Nilsson noted in her blog: “Pieces are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. They are constructed by a technique of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling or paper filigree. Quilling was first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who are said to have made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time.”

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