There's a lot one can do with an old book, if growing a big library is not a dream. You can give or sell the book away to another owner, of course. Or if you're Montreal-based artist Guy Larame, you carve some of the most beautiful landscape sculptures in old books. Laramee carves the edges of vintage books and other old manuscripts such as encyclopedias into naure scapes such as mountains and ocean waves.

He's dedicated his series of sculptures, which he's called "Guan Yin" to the strength that allows humans to overcome grief and pain. The name "Guan Yin" comes from a Chen Dynasty empress who took the name after she became a Buddhist nun. Today, Guan Yin means for East Asian Buddhist the "compassion" of a female.

Of his work, Larame writes the following about the project on his website:

"My mother died in 2011. I was with her when she took her last breath. In fact there was no last breath. Each breath grew smaller and smaller. I took her pulse when it appeared that there would not be another breath. I like to think that there was one last tiny heart beat, but in fact there was no end. Only a growing silence which continues now.

It was a couple of days after Japan's tsunami. Images that devastated me. I like to think that through these images and the anxiety that they triggered in me, I anticipated my mom's death. But I can't be sure of anything anymore, can I ?

Everything we know, everything we did, everything we think we are, everything and everyone we love, all this will be wiped out. We would like to think that something will remain, culture, knowledge, or call it "life" if you don't want to call it God, but of this also, we have no certitude. "No certitude" seems to be the only one we have, but even this is a concept, and concepts are the first thing to go down the drain, aren't they ?"

The connection between the books and the meaning the artist gives is open to interpretation. But one thing is clear: the painstaking work of creating these sculptures is definitely an expression of his love for his mother. The books are a part of an exhibit at the Christopher Henry Gallery in New York City until July 15.