A bookbinder has made it their mission to remove J.K. Rowling's name from Harry Potter books amid her transgender row and has now completed 30 tomes. Artist Laur Flom, 23, embarked on the project to help Harry Potter fans who have ethical issues when reading Rowling's best sellers. Laur started their project began in January 2022 and were motivated by the allegations of transphobia against the British author. Over the last several years, Rowling has faced a backlash for controversial comments about the transgender community. Laur, who lives in Toronto, Canada, explained: "The project is spurred by her transphobia. "I was [a fan]. Growing up when I did, it was a given that you would read Harry Potter. "After J.K Rowling's views on people like me came out, it left a bad taste in my mouth. "It raised questions about the ethics of consuming her work. "The purpose of this project is to create a safe space for fans to find comfort in the books and critically engage with J.K Rowling's work. "This project isn't about the 'death of the author', that's impossible." In order to recreate the books, Laur, who also works as a bartender, seeks out second-hand copies of the series. They remove the covers and copyright pages and replaces them with their own versions. Each book takes around 12 hours to re-bind, not including the time it takes for Laur to package and send it off to the buyer. They spend approximately 15 hours-a-week on the project, as they continue to work as a bartender at the same time. The books are sold for £979 for a set of seven, and £140 for an individual book, a portion of each sale is donated to transgender charities. Laur's work has caused some controversy with some viewers, but overall people have reacted positively. They added: "[The reactions are] mostly good, the majority of my comments are positive my last video reached a strange part of TikTok and reactions were mixed, but mostly good. "I would hope that the impact of my project is just to bring light to her transphobia and to make people aware of the things she has said. "I get so many comments just asking what she had done. "I think that it's been successful so far, just the fact that people have been interested makes me think that it's been successful."
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