Hooked on the 2D Book Nook

If you happened upon the Owen D. Young Library’s Yellow Pipe Room in the past month, you may have noticed an intricately designed black-and-white sculpture. That neat colorless niche is the 2D Book Nook, “an interactive art installation aiming to transform a 3D space into a 2D illusion of a drawn library space,” as characterized by the creative mastermind Liza L. L. Paige.   

Paige is a unique North Country artist working as an adjunct professor of studio arts at St. Lawrence University and Clarkson University. Along with her undergraduate teachings, she also works as an Arts Educator at the North Country Children’s Museum in Potsdam, New York.   

Her recent work with interactive display settings was inspired by Tokyo-based artists who create “2D Cafes” to project the experience of dining in a two-dimensional atmosphere. However, the Nook is far from her first foray into this elaborate style. “I had designed a site-specific interactive installation at the North Country Children’s Museum,” she states. “I wanted to create a space where kids could play inside a piece of artwork.”   

Her NCCM exhibit was but a stepping stone for her following project featured in the Richard F. Brush Gallery’s Faculty Exhibit. “The piece was titled the 2D Dorm Room and featured a dorm-like space set in a corner of the gallery.” Although the installation was a limited feature, Paige did urge that she would love to create a full-sized version within an actual SLU dorm room. I am sure she could find some vacant rooms around campus. (Maybe the Artist Guild is looking for a permanent feature to their poetic aesthetic abode.)  

But, of course, the talk of campus is her current installation: the 2D Book Nook. The exhibit was planned and constructed in just 6 months after years of creative build-up. “For years, I was dedicated to creating life-like illusions of 3D objects on paper,” Paige inquires. “It was a fun challenge to now play with the notion of turning 3D spaces into 2D illusions rather than trying to use a 2D piece of paper and replicate a 3D object within the flat picture plane.”   

Several students on campus might have visited the Book Nook, prompted to post their personal portraits wearing the stylized black-and-white sweatshirt, hat or glasses. “Rather than the traditional ‘look but don’t touch’ approach to viewing 2D artworks, the viewer is invited to become a part of the work by stepping into the drawing and interacting with the carefully selected props,” Paige encourages. “The work is meant to be photographed so that the viewer becomes the focal point within the work. The space alone looks fine, but it’s intended to have human interaction.” So, truly, students must utilize the generational attachment to social media and smartphones by indulging their own perspective in the 2D Book Nook. It is an inviting space for anyone to represent themselves as the art itself.  

For those interested in admiring some of Paige’s other works, she has conducted several community-based murals located in Potsdam near the Children’s Museum, SUNY Potsdam’s Food Pantry, and within Foster the Plant Cafe. She also has features in Norwood and Watertown as well as murals for local businesses, including the North Country Children’s Museum’s treehouse Exhibit and North Country Martial Arts Academy in Norfolk, New York.  

With an already extensive catalog, Liza Paige’s future is sure to flourish. Keep an eye out for her upcoming spring semester classes and more installations to come.