Barbara Wildenboer
Paper cutter
Cape Town, South Africa
Creatures born from books
- Barbara transforms books into complex forms linking knowledge and scale
- Before dedicating herself to her paper craft, she taught at schools and universities
- She is drawn to thorns, tentacles and the senses
Barbara Wildenboer’s practice focuses on paper, a medium she has been working with since 2006. Today, she cuts, splices and dissects her books by hand. "Raised in a household where books were valued and carefully preserved, cutting into them would have been considered unacceptable. This tension continues to inform my work today," Barbara explains. Through a slow, labour intensive process, flat pages are transformed into complex, branching structures that extend beyond the book’s original form. This allows Barbara to explore fractal patterns that link the tiny and the vast across nature and body. Her ongoing piece, Library of the Infinitesimally Small and the Unimaginably Large, draws inspiration from Jorge Luis Borges’ The Library of Babel, where the library becomes a metaphor for the universe itself.
INTERVIEW
Over years I have developed a kind of muscle memory, so the cutting happens fluidly. I work on these pieces almost daily, and their intricacy comes from sustained precision and long familiarity with the process.
It could replicate the look, but it would feel different. The labour, human involvement and even small flaws like jagged edges or specks of dirt add a quality that technology would smooth away.
I am experimenting with moss sculptures, plant acoustics and idea of plants having agency rather than consciousness. I am drawn to thorns, tentacles and the senses. My exploration never resolves neatly, and that tension excites me.
I work regularly with a small group of underprivileged children from a nearby informal settlement. It began with their curiosity about my process and slowly grew into shared making sessions, setting up tables and working together.
