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HAVING spent too much time idling in hotel rooms, Christina Kruse, the hauntingly beautiful German model, decided in the mid-'90s to take up a hobby. So she bought a Mamiya camera and became her own guinea pig, dressing up as different characters and posing for herself. Then she began gluing the photos into travel journals (or ''Reisebuchs,'' as she calls them) and creating intricate collages that elegantly combined gouache and newsprint, colored tape and metallic paper. ''They became like a language I had with myself,'' she said. Nowadays, Ms. Kruse has a studio in Brooklyn and a costume closet the size of a small bedroom. Her photos have been published in Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Interview; and last week, her first solo show in the United States opened at Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea. On view is a range of evocative, often amusing self-portraits and collages, as well as ''Reisebuch 1-5,'' her limited-edition artist's book, painstakingly self-published in Germany. So much for free time. As she noted, ''It took forever to do them.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]