Freddie Mercury, Einstein, Amy Winehouse, Frida Kahlo, and Mozart alongside Maimonides, the Rebbe of Lubavitch, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi.
These are just some of the figures Taking up space on shelves in the living room of Lior Amitai's house in Kfar Saba.
Occasionally New members join the collection of faces carved into many different books, in which he reshapes the margins of the pages to create magnificent artwork. Each such detail requires precise planning and high concentration until the spectacular and admirable art is completed.
מהארי פוטר ומסי ועד הרבי מלובביץ': האמן שמפסל בדפי ספרים - https://t.co/5N412asR4A pic.twitter.com/ggoUD4RvPJ
— מגוון החדשות (@r0QPh35NAIbPhiI) June 11, 2022
"I first saw this art at a friend’s house, seven years ago," Lior says. "It intrigued me, and I learned the folding technique. I have a combination of two methods: one is folding, and the other is using precise cutting inside the hundreds of book pages. When you put it all together you get what you see, whether it's a figure, name, date or anything.”
"The first books take a lot of time. The first was my daughter's name, her name is Zohar, and it took me two weeks. I was perfect. I also wanted to make one with my son's name, Yuval, and then all the problems began, I did not calculate the cutting correctly or the number of pages. When I got to the first letter, I did not have enough pages and I had to throw away the book. I took a long break out of frustration and since I came back I decided to check everything in advance. Since then, my pace has changed. "
In September 2019 Amitai resigned from his job and decided to dedicate himself entirely to books. He began to prepare for life as a freelancer in the field, preparing the infrastructure, the website, the social networks and the workshops he needed. Half a year later COVID arrived and with it the lockdowns, the whole world stopped. "I was very scared. It was not appropriate to do zoom workshops because it is very cumbersome in this kind of art at least. One has to really have hands-on attention and explain. Eventually, I realized I had no choice, that I was not eligible for grants and nothing was going to change in the coming weeks.”
With the pandemic coming to an end in most of the world, Lior regained the tools he needed for success and he finally felt compensated for his artwork.
"There are a lot of people who want to donate, even in Nahalat Binyamin in Tel Aviv where my stand is, people, pass by the stand and ask: 'Do you need books? Do you want books?'. Everyone is trying to get rid of the Hebrew encyclopedia, but enough, I do not need anymore."
