Book art as therapy? Book art in therapy!
Book art as therapy? Book art in therapy!
Book art as therapy? Book art in therapy!
Book art in therapy, book art as therapy, a collaboration between therapist and artist, a daring subject especially by a layman?
The decisive advantage of a form of therapy with book art would be the fact that at the end of the artistic and spiritual examination of a subject, a document would remain in the form of the book, showing the patient his own path or the route he has travelled so far and thus the developments he has made.
In the book-art-book, the turning point, perhaps also the point of becoming healed, remains visible. The artist, the patient becomes aware of his own change in working with the book. In a therapeutic situation, this change can be made apparent through a therapeutic intervention and have a beneficial effect.
The decisive plus with book art is the option to keep a documentation even over a long period of time. Developmental processes thus become clear, and perhaps also deepened. A chronologically painted or written book art book makes it possible to show through diverse forms of articulation such as text, ornamentation or picture, where I stood at the beginning, where I stand now.
Through writing and painting, the patient can detach himself a little from his thoughts, "IT" writes, "IT" paints, sometimes far away from any own interpretation. Perhaps a confidant is then needed, who perhaps only needs to ask, so that questions are not left unanswered.
This impulse, this intervention from the outside makes a new approach possible in the artistic and intellectual examination of a self-chosen theme. A path, a direction will show itself, it will suddenly be there. This experience can be the basis for us to be addressed in our innermost heart, our soul, in order to find solutions for seemingly unsolvable things.
It is precisely at this point that we have an option in book art to draw new strength and hope from overbinding processes, also to gather strength for further future problems that can hit us again and again.
Book art makes us strong!
Gerd J. Wunderer