Mark Wagner's Currency Collages

A dollar sure isn't worth much these days...until you cut it up into bits and and get out the glue. Mark Wagner, co-founder and president of The Booklyn Artists Alliance and x-acto master, makes the most of his money. His portfolio of currency collages goes up at Pavel Zoubok Gallery Sept. 4 to Oct. 4. (533 West 23rd Street).

His site is laden with cool collages made from one dollar bills and, this time, there's no laser cutting involved. This extract is from his site:

"The one dollar bill is the most ubiquitous piece of paper in America. Collage asks the question: what might be done to make it something else? It is a ripe material: intaglio printed on sturdy linen stock, covered in decorative filigree, and steeped in symbolism and concept. Blade and glue transform it-reproducing the effects of tapestries, paints, engravings, mosaics, and computers-striving for something bizarre, beautiful, or unbelievable... the foreign in the familiar."