Betty Pepper
Betty Pepper is an artist and maker based in Yoxford, Suffolk, who makes miniature paper sculptures and book art from damaged and discarded books.
The work belongs to an ongoing series, Living on the Edge, which now runs to well over two hundred pieces. Each sculpture is a tiny world of houses set in its own landscape, and each comes with a short story of its own, written by the artist. The practice is rooted in storytelling and magical realism.
Alongside the series, Betty Pepper accepts commissions and writes the stories and blog posts that accompany the work.
Artist Statement
My work is made from pieces of damaged, discarded books. Mistreated books, defaced books, water-damaged books, books with pages missing, or books that had something to say but have reached the end of their life in that form: all are welcome here. I take them in, listen to their tales of woe, and give them a new raison d'être.
Just so you know, we are talking about tiny work. These are houses that have an approximate footprint of only one square centimetre. They stand in their own little landscapes telling their tales. While some are argumentative, others are sad, jubilant, or simply lost. They all have a story to tell. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all living on the edge in some way, as I think most of us do.
