Taking inspiration from Elizabeth Badurina's definitions of an altered book to simply "take an existing book and make it into art" to the complex definition of "using a book's form in a new way for a completely different purpose or function". I was drawn to tear up, gut and use pieces and parts of my vintage almost antique red riding hood books to create a visual red riding hood "book" in the shape of her grandmother’s house.
Cut up illustrations and texts from the books are sewn together with the scanned images of the covers to tell the story visually with the text from the story moving along the sides of the pictures.
Over the years there have been scores of versions all with different endings. My least favorite is her being saved by a huntsman to my favorite being James Thurber's ending where Red Riding Hood takes a gun from her basket and shoots the wolf. Saying, "It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be."
I thought I would have this piece end leaving it up to the imagination of the viewer. The piece ends with the illustration matching the words “Grandmother, what big teeth you have got!” “All the better to eat you up with.” And, saying these words, this wicked wolf sprang at little red riding hood . . . .
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