Lisa Kokin plays with puns as Ex Libro, the title of her upcoming exhibition, ends up meaning both "from the book" and "formerly a book." Quite appropriate, considering Kokin alters text quite literally by deconstructing books then reconstructing them. Kokin makes papier maché forms out of books and often sews the contents back to the covers. The form defines the content, like the Room for Improvement installation where all the components are made from self-help books.

Artist: Lisa Kokin
+ donnaseagergallery.com

Francesca Signori is a globe-trotting artist based in Milan who has turned her hand to many diverse expressions of her art. Signori uses paper a great deal, in various formats. Shown above is an inflatable paper cushion printed with a very feminine collage of text, illustration and graphics, but Signori also uses paper for panels of wallpaper and flirty white coats. This artist is indeed a woman of many talents and materials. She uses compressed sugar, of all things, for tiles and is the genius behind soap jewellery and lingerie. We couldn't even conceive of such a thing.

Artist: Francesca Signori
+ francescasignori.com

Wallcoverings can be considered interior design or art, depending on the paper in question and one's point of view. (The worst case would be to leave off considering wallcoverings at all, especially if they were there!) Catherine Hammerton's bespoke work is so intricate, textured and layered that it would be mighty difficult to ignore. Recent handmade wallcoverings include a many-layered forest floor, a wide array of scales and Grace, a ready-to-wear collection with flourishes that the user can apply as a final touch.

Artist: Catherine Hammerton
+ catherinehammerton.com

Artist: Jen Merrill
+ jenmerrill.com
+ icebergergallery.com

Artist: Nikki McClure
+ nikkimcclure.com

Yuken Teruya cuts trees out of paper bags and cardboard tubes, creating forests of delicate branches and the shadows they cast. Initially the trees were cut out of carrier bags turned on their sides. The paper cuts were made from the top and the resulting tree was popped out to form a diorama framed by its own shadowbox, the bag itself. These bags span the range from high-end designer shopping bags to the ubiquitous Macdonald’s takeout bags and the cardboard tubes can easily be identified as humble toilet paper rolls. But the work itself is extremely precise, with the artist basing the cuts on photographs of actual trees.

Artist: Yuken Teruya
+ shoshanawayne.com

Jorge Macchi’s current exhibition, Due volte nello stesso fiume (Twice in the same river), uses the notion of space as a recurring motif. Fantasmi, mostri, incubi is a clever look at a newspaper with all the articles carefully cut out, leaving nothing but the space and a few words from headlines here and there. Bed and Breakfast is an amusing twist on bare bones hospitality, with the two objects taking up, and creating, space. And Due volte nello stesso fiume (II) is a river made out of a map showing the Tiber River. Again, it is not only the river that stands out but the space left between the pretzel-like twists and turns.

Artist: Jorge Macchi
+ galleriacontinua.com

Peter Callesen cuts plain white paper into fantasies of two and three dimensions with eye-popping results. Callesen’s paper sculptures leave their base, or source, in the tidiest manner possible, so that the history of the creation is as fascinating as the creation itself. Callesen’s works are witty and magical. One man reaches down to lend a hand to his own falling body, while the skeleton falls right out of another. A hummingbird is cut out of a flower and poppies wilt, no longer fresh, while many a moat surrounds the impenetrable castle. Simply wonderful. Via Core 77

Artist: Peter Callesen
+ oncotton.co.uk

In case you thought the world of origami started with the crane and ended with the frog, Jospeh Wu is the origami artist for you. Wu’s website features not only his own patiently constructed creations, but presents a nice gallery of the important works of others. Some of the pieces come with instructions, others are special commissions or more exclusive designs. Fish and fowl are certainly prominent amongst the models, but Wu has also done a variety of inanimate objects, like microscopes, movie cameras and computers. A modern take on a long-time tradition.

Artist: Joseph Wu
+ origami.vancouver.bc.ca

Black silhouettes cut out and pasted onto white backgrounds form the major part of the works of Kara Walker, but these are not simply pretty profiles. Walker's oeuvre is a whole Pandora's box of race and identity as pertaining to African-American history and present-day sociology. The artist's context ranges from the days of masters and slaves to the havoc wrought by Hurricane Katrina, all of which make for uncomfortable viewing. But the bold black cut outs show such movement and are so easy on the eye that Walker has chosen an excellent method of getting her points and statements across.

Artist: Kara Walker
+ sikkemajenkinsco.com