A 23-year-old person from Toronto, Canada has been hard at work “removing” JK Rowling’s name from used Harry Potter books and replacing not only the book covers with her own custom covers – but also removing her name from the copyright pages and title pages, according to SWNS reports.
Person has completed at least 30 newly bound books – offering them for sale in their newly bound form.
Artist Laur Flom, who runs a website in Canada, apparently started a project to “help” any “Harry Potter” fans who discover they have ethical issues with the author while reading her best-selling books.
Flom started the job a year ago, saying he was motivated by accusations of transphobia that were made against the British author, according to SWNS.
Several years ago, Rowling faced backlash for comments that some considered controversial about the transgender community.
Laur Flom told SWNS: “The project is driven by her transphobia… I was [a fan]. Growing up, you were sure to read Harry Potter.
However, Flom added that “after JK Rowling’s views on people like me came out, it left a bad taste in my mouth.”
He added: “It raised questions about the ethics of consuming her work.”
“Creating a Safe Space”
Flom said that “the goal of this project is to create a safe space for fans to find solace in the books and engage critically with JK Rowling’s work.”
To “recreate” the books, Flom – who reportedly also works as a bartender – looks for used copies of the “Harry Potter” books.
“Just the fact that people were interested makes me think it worked.”
Flom then removes the book’s covers and copyright pages – and replaces them with her own unique versions, SWNS reports.
It takes Flom about 12 hours to rebind each book – not counting the time it takes to pack the books and ship them to buyers.
Flom reportedly sells each newly bound book for about $170. He charges about $1,200 for a set of seven.
![Harry Potter](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/NYPICHPDPICT000005015090.jpg)
According to SWNS, a portion of each sale is donated to charities that serve the transgender community.
The work on the book was not without controversy.
Flom told SWNS: “[The reactions are] mostly good. Most of my comments are positive – my last video made it to a weird part of TikTok and the response was mixed but mostly good.”
Flom added: “I hope the impact of my project is just to shed light [Rowling’s] transphobia and making people aware of what she said… I get so many comments when I ask what she did.”
He also said, “Just the fact that people were interested makes me think it worked out.”
Fox News Digital contacted Flom for comment.
On his website, Flom describes himself as “graphic artist, book artist and Taylor Swift fan based in Toronto, Ontario.”
“My practice is largely conceptual.”
She also says, “My practice is largely conceptual, exploring themes of identity, memory, and transmasculinity. I also bind the Harry Potter books from time to time.”
It also says on the site, “Send your personal copies for Rowling to reframe, restore and delete.”
Scholastic published Rowling’s first book The Harry Potter book. in the United States in September 1998. That book was Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. (In the UK, this book was published as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.)
The publisher on its website states that over 500 million copies of the Harry Potter book series have been sold worldwide so far.
It is also said to have sold over 180 million copies in the United States alone.
Scholastic adds, “If all the Harry Potter books sold so far were stacked in a row, they would circle the equator more than 16 times.”