12/10/2026
đđĽ BOILED BOOKS â THE BEAUTY OF LETTING GO, ATTACHMENT & TRANSFORMATION đ¨đ
Could you deliberately destroy a perfectly good book? đđł
Not just any book⌠but one that someone has spent months, perhaps years, writing.
A book filled with someoneâs imagination, knowledge, thoughts and stories.
For many of us, books are precious.
We grow up being taught to look after them, respect them and never damage their pages.
So imagine being invited to take a book, fill it with papers, colours, images and textures, bind it together⌠and then BOIL IT! đłđ
During our creative arts therapy retreat, we explored the fascinating process of Boiled Books.
And while the creative possibilities were exciting, the process also invited us to consider something much deeper.
đ What does it mean to deliberately alter or potentially destroy something that already has value?
A book isnât simply paper held together by a cover.
Someone has written those words.
Someone has invested their time, creativity and perhaps a little piece of themselves into its pages.
And sometimes books hold sentimental value for us too.
They remind us of childhood, someone we love, a particular time in our lives or a story that has stayed with us.
The thought of changing or destroying a book can bring up unexpected feelings.
âBut itâs a perfectly good book!â
âSomeone worked so hard to write this.â
âIt feels wrong to damage it.â
âWhat if I ruin something that can never be replaced?â
And suddenly, what appears to be a playful creative activity becomes an opportunity to explore our values, attachments and beliefs.
đż Why do we hold on to certain things?
đż What makes something precious or valuable?
đż Can something lose its original purpose but gain a different kind of meaning?
đż Is transformation the same as destruction?
đż Can we honour something while also allowing it to change?
And then thereâs the creative process itselfâŚ
As the book is exposed to heat and water, colours bleed, papers wrinkle, textures transfer and pages begin to transform.
We can choose the materials and prepare the book, but we cannot completely control the outcome.
đ¨ This is where the therapeutic possibilities become particularly interesting.
Boiled Books can invite us to explore:
đ Attachment and letting go â noticing what it feels like to change something we value.
đ Control and uncertainty â allowing the process to unfold without knowing what the final result will be.
đą Loss and transformation â considering how something familiar can change while still holding meaning.
đŚ Perfectionism and acceptance â learning to appreciate wrinkles, stains, imperfections and unexpected outcomes.
⨠Respect and personal values â reflecting on what we believe should be preserved, protected or allowed to evolve.
And perhaps the most important part isnât the finished book at all.
Itâs noticing what happens within us throughout the experience.
Do we feel guilty?
Excited?
Uncomfortable?
Curious?
Do we hesitate before beginning?
Do we want to rescue the book from the process?
Or do we discover a sense of freedom in allowing something familiar to become something entirely different?
There is no right or wrong response.
And choosing not to alter a book can be just as meaningful as choosing to transform one.
Thatâs something I love about creative arts therapy.
Sometimes the materials and the decisions we make while working with them reveal opportunities for reflection that we might never have anticipated.
đ Perhaps a Boiled Book isnât simply about destroying an old story.
Perhaps itâs about exploring what happens when we give something a new chapter. đ
And perhaps, just like in life, transformation doesnât always mean that what came before has lost its value.
đŹ Iâd love to know⌠Could you bring yourself to boil a perfectly good book, or would the thought of destroying someoneâs written words be too difficult? đđĽ
đ AngelArts Studio
Creative Counselling & Wellbeing Workshops
Head ⢠Hand ⢠Heart
