Jurgen Olbrich, Grey, Kassel, Germany, 2025

Front cover

This is not the first modified vintage photo-strip that I've received from Jurgen, with this one taken up with touristic views from around Lake Garda in Italy. Jurgen's 'grey' intervention obscures the views forcing the viewer to scramble for clues of what lies underneath. Ultimately its a futile activity and you reach a point where you just have to accept it for what is is — a series of photographs with daubs of grey paint smeared onto their surfaces. 

12 single-sided pages, individually 2.25" x 3.5" and unfolded 3ft 6".

back cover

leporello with No-Institute envelope

R. Clarke-Davis, A Book of Wander: Tarriff Aware and A Book of Wanderings, Kiddy Viddy Press, 2025

A Book of Wander: Tarriff Aware, 2025 

A cool new accordion from Clarke-Davis, the moody feeling of the work is emphasized by the film sprocket framing which also gives it a sense of movement. The camera becomes witness and documentarian of these darkened spaces of the night all of which resonates and seems very apropos for the present times.

6 single sided pages, individually 5" x 7" and when unfolded 3ft 6"

Back cover

________________________________________________________________

A Book of Wanderings, 2025

Another in Clarke-Davis' flaneur of the night books in which he documents deserted city streets. The following quote is from this book's end page, "A book of wanderings from the early morning without taxis or uber, if my sister only knew...".

What's interesting for me about this book is its structure, it has been printed in a long strip like an accordion, but both end pages are glued to the cover. The result is an accordion book that you can't open up and it forces the viewer/reader to experience it as a traditional book, although it is ostensibly two different kinds of books. An interesting dilemma for sure!

24 pages, individually 4.25" x 4".

back cover

Gary Panter, Recent Paintings and Works on Paper, Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York, 1989

Exhibition brochure's mailing envelope

One side of this exhibition brochure has this wild mash-up of 5 images in Panter's now familiar styles and sensibility. On the reverse side is a very informative summary of Panter's career by John Carlin.

5 double-sided pages, individually 5" x 7" and when unfolded 2ft 11".

Hardcore Panter fans might check out this link to another of his work's on this blog: 

accordion publications: Gary Panter, Dirty Drawings, CBO Editions, late 1980s, [ed. 120]

reverse side

back of envelope with Panter drawing

Garami Richard, Silhouette Phantasm, Manufaktor, Budapest, nd

A fun little accordion that is an instruction manual in how to make shadow animals using your two hands. Small enough to fit in a pocket and bilingual - Hungarian and English.

11 single-side pages, individually 2.5" x 2.5", fully extended 2ft 3.5".

Abraham Cruzvillegas, Sticky Selfies, Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite, Berlin, 2023

                                                          front cover

An interesting free-form leporello filled with drawings of gorillas and monkeys in various shapes, sizes and styles. This 13ft homage to the animal kindom is spread out across assorted page colors and with care taken in the sequencing of the works. About the subject of this leporello this Mexico-based artist has said:  

"Once I read that gorillas are genetically closer to humans than zebras to horses; that is why I started portraying them. Then, as I did them, as a therapy or as some inefficient or meditative practice, I started discovering amazing similarities between cynocephaly, orangutans, guenus, giant baboons, catarrhinis and my own parents, brothers, aunts, grandparents and cousins. My aunt Amalia was almost identical to a rhesus macaque and Rogelio, my father, was without a doubt the closest thing to a baboon. I sometimes dream I am a silver furred gorilla."

20 double-sided pages, individually 9" x 8", and when unfolded13ft 4".

                                                                      reverse side

                                                                     back cover

Frankyboots, Romantic Instinct, Le Dernier Cri, Marseille, France, 2023, ed. 100

front cover

Not an accordion, but the fold is the central feature of this funky silkscreen folio of four folded works containing handrawn images of sex workers taken from their calling cards. The retro-porno graphic style of these works coupled with the mix of Asian and Caucasian women, lends the publication a nostalgic feel as if its a naughty relic from the past.

An added bonus is the fun double-sided 8 page folded cover which holds the prints. I really have no idea who the author(s) are, but certainly there is a strong connection to the Le Dernier Cri crew, indeed this publication continues Le Dernier Cri's tradition of pushing the boundaries of what things can and might be. 

Single pages 8.5" x 6".

the cover and the four folded silkscreen prints

the cover and its interior

back cover