Have you ever picked up an old hardcover—an out-of-date planner, a dictionary nobody opens—and wondered what else it could become? Before you toss it, consider this: with nothing but your hands and a patient afternoon, you can fold those bound pages into a glowing paper lantern that looks far more impressive than the effort it takes.

There's something almost magical about watching a flat book slowly bloom into a three-dimensional sculpture as you repeat one tiny corner-fold, page after page. No scissors, no glue, no special tools—just rhythm, repetition, and a little crease-setting. Let's turn that forgotten book into art.

Book sculptures—also called altered books—are ordinary books transformed into incredible pieces of art. Altered books often involve scissors and/or glue, but this design is made by folding alone. It isn’t a difficult design, yet it does take a while to finish, because the time depends on how many pages you choose to fold.

The final look of your sculpture depends on the shape of the book and how many pages it has. A square book makes a stout, rounded lantern. A book that is twice as tall as it is wide produces a shape like the one shown above, except that the top and bottom taper to a point. Tall, slim books won’t form a lantern; instead they lean toward the Quartz-style design.

The instructions are simple, but there is plenty to do, so let’s get started:

Book Sculpture: Lantern

STEP 1.

Take a book and remove the front and back covers, but leave the pages bound together. Without tearing the pages out, peel away any stray binding glue still clinging to the spine. The book shown here was a day-planner donated by Slingshot.

STEP 2.

Fold the top corner of the page down; at the same time, fold the bottom corner up. Align the top and bottom corners so they meet in the middle, with the paper edges touching. Press firmly to set the crease.

STEP 3.

Believe it or not, you have just finished the hardest part of the whole project. Turn to the next page.

STEP 4.

Repeat. Fold the top corner down and the bottom corner up. Match the edges so they stay even. The folded edges of this second page should line up exactly with the edges of page 1.

STEP 5.

Turn to the next page.

This is how it looks after two pages are folded.

This is the side view once all the pages are folded.

This is a three-quarter view. Note: if you use more pages, or if your pages are thicker, your sculpture may flare open more and wrap a full 360 degrees around.

This sculpture was made with the hard cover left on. One benefit of keeping the cover is that it provides a clean backdrop. It is also easier to store and transport, since you can simply close the book and the hard cover protects the folded corners from being dented.

Buy Personalized Book Sculptures

Book sculptures and altered books are usually created by reshaping the pages while they are still bound together. You can cut, fold, paint, and do all sorts of interesting things with the paper to build beautiful structures. Every book sculpture on this site is made by folding alone.