Brian Dettmer is a contemporary artist known for his alteration of preexisting media — such as old books, maps, record albums, and cassette tapes — to create new, transformed works of visual fine art. Dettmer was influenced heavily by working in a sign shop where his work transformed to explore the relationship between text, images, language, and codes, including paintings based on braille, Morse Code, and American Sign Language. He began to make work by pasting newspapers and book pages to canvas and tearing off pieces. In 2000, Dettmer started to experiment by gluing and cutting into books. He selectively removes portions to reveal what's inside, though never inserts or moves the contents.
