BOOKNESS speaks to Ben Denzer

For our first artist interview in this series, BOOKNESS talks to book designer and artist Ben Denzer, about his work 20 Slices, a book created from Kraft American cheese.

Listen to the episode here.

’20 Slices’ by Ben Denzer (Photo courtesy of  Catalog Press)

This is already basically a book … these things look like pages, they’re kind of packed together, there’s an order, all I really did was bind those together and give them the cover. I thought it was interesting how it just becomes a book through that process

This image of the Bodleian’s “pristine” copy of 20 Slices  was taken by the Conservation team in May 2021 as part of the documentation of the object to record its condition.

’20 Slices’ by Ben Denzer (Cons.Res. 41)

I think of it as a book. But I also have a very broad definition of a book

20 Slices is on display as part of the Sensational Books exhibition at the Weston Library in Oxford until 4th December 2022.

Photos courtesy of Ian Wallman.