Nicolò Degiorgis, La Laguna di Venezia (The Venice Lagoon), Rorhof: Bolzano-Boze (Italy), 2014, ed. 500

Degiorgis is a documentary photographer who runs the Rorhof publishing house with his partner Michele, and the following is their statement for this quite subtle and understated accordion book of 22 postcards of photographs of "The Venice Lagoon".

The city of Venice was founded in the 5th century and spread over 118 small islands. It is worldwide-known for its blend of historical palaces, bridges, squares and local artisan shops. At the far ends of the city one can chance upon a different world ruled by seawater, strands, animals and plants. All together they constitute a unique and fragile ecosystem which past industrial developments and current increase of tourism are seriously putting at risk. Venice and its Lagoon – one of the biggest and most important in the Mediterranean – was declared world heritage site by UNESCO and still remains off touristic routes. Uninhabited islands, small watercrafts, piers, harbours and fishing infrastructures merge with the natural environment and extreme conditions man has to face in this very special place. With this project Nicolò Degiorgis aimes to pay homage to the city of Venice and draw our attention towards its controversies.

Individual cards 3 1/2" (h) x 5 1/2" (w), when fully opened 10 feet 1".

Miriam Schapiro (1923-2015), Rondo, Bedford Arts, San Francisco, 1989, ed. 80

An interesting, and in my opinion a rather uneven accordion book from this ground-breaking feminist artist who, together with Judy Chicago, founded the first feminist art program at the California Institute of Arts in 1971. The next year they would go on to co-direct Womanhouse, an early and very important installation of work by 28 women artists.

Of this book Schapiro writes in the colophon:  

For RONDO I created a series of dancers who move in a nospace on a nostage against a painted background or backdrop. When the accordion-pleated book is opened to its full extent, all the dancers move out on the first twelve panels. On the return side, I collaged images on a flat plane. Imaginary bouquets, hearts that throb, masks, fans and kimonos are still—not in motion—as if the dancers on the front had caught themselves concentrating on one thought, one image.

14 pages, double-sided, individual pages 12" (h) x 9" (w), when fully open 10 feet 6 inches.

Endnote: for such a beautifully printed accordion as this one, and printed in such a small edition with work by this well known artist, it's rather surprising (if not a bit depressing) to find copies of it for sale on amazon at $5.98!

Front

Back

Colophon Foundry, Visuelt Specimen, offset, London, 2017, ed. 500

A rather different accordion from the London-based Colophon type foundry. Colophon creates, publishes and distributes high-quality retail and custom typefaces for analog and digital media. Since 2009 they've been committed to "...producing fonts that are composed with aesthetic and technological care, prompting a reputable library of new classics that couple typographic history with contemporary sensibilities." [https://www.colophon-foundry.org/about/]

This accordion presents the Visuelt type family that was created originally for the Visuelt Competition with Bielke&Yang (Norway).

8 pages, double-sided, individual pages 9 1/2" (h) x 6.75" (w) and when opened 4' 6".

The accordion with the wraparound cover. 

 Without cover

Back of the wraparound cover

The Circle Walked Casually, Deutsche Bank, Berlin, 2013

This is a really beautifully produced German language catalogue for an exhibition of works on paper from the Deutsche Bank Collection coupled with works from the Museum of Modern Art in Buenos Aires, where this iteration of the exhibition was shown. The Argentinian curator for the show was Victoria Noorthoorn.

The show was premised upon a short story "Genealogy" by the Uruguayan magic realist writer Felisberto Hernandez (1902-1964) in which a circle and triangle fall in love and walk along a horizontal line. For Noorthoorn the question that this story posed was "How could a mere line, casually developing, unfolding, growing, speak of our contemporary existence as human beings, of our loneliness, introspection and need for love, of the twists and turns of art as it opens to continual movement, transformation and change?"

The design of the exhibition was the work of the Mexican artist Erick Beltran, and all the works are hung from the ceiling so that they appear to be suspended in pure space, and so the viewer weaves through the white space of the gallery punctuated by these floating artworks. 

48 pages, double-sided, individual pages 11 1/2" (h) x 7 1/2" (w), when fully opened 15 feet.

 front

 back

Visionaire, #6, "The Sea," Summer, 1992

Visionaire magazine is one of the activities of the company Visionaire, which describes itself as having been "...established in 1991 with its roots in limited edition publishing which has since expanded into an experiential agency. Visionaire has been collaborating with artists, influencers, and Fortune 500 companies for over 25 years; conceptualizing and producing public art installations, film, immersive and interactive experiences, branded content, and art multiples through the lens of art, fashion, and contemporary culture."

This accordion edition of the periodical is symbolic of the editor's experimentation with format and presentation, with previous issues assembled in folios, boxes and the latest edition's poster issue (#68) available for $1000 as a print edition, or free as a pdf available here: 

https://visionaireworld.com/collections/all/products/visionaire-68-now-opensource

Visionaire is a topnotch art magazine that's not been afraid to question our ideas about the periodical — what it is, what it could be, and what it was, and in the process they've created a fascinating series of printed matter works that explore this rich vein. Visionaire is a thoughtful high end product with a lineage that extends to the artists' periodicals Aspen and SMS, with Fluxus floating somewhere in the background. The editors are Cecilia Dean, James Kaliardo and Stephen Gan.

12 double-sided pages, each one 11" (h) x 8 1/2" (w), and when opened 10 feet long.

 Frontispiece page of the issue with contributors and editors names...

back of periodical

Armin Linke, Take Me (I'm Yours), offset, 1995/2017

This is a curious little accordion by this Italian born artist now based in Berlin. Linke is a photographer who is "...primarily concerned with strategies of photographic representation and the intersection of collective memory, history and the archive. Working globally and peripatetically, his practice has centered around the documentation, through large scale-color prints, of the effects of globalization and urbanization, and the consequences of both on local populations." [source: guggenheim.org]

This accordion by Linke documents the exhibition and participants in a rather interesting show during its first showing at the Serpentine gallery in London (24, March 1995 - 30, April, 1995). The exhibit continues to be shown in different international locations and one of the last ones, which included Linke's works (and I'm assuming this booklet as well), was at the Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan in 2017. The idea for this exhibition grew out of conversations between the curator, Hans Ulrich Obrist and the artist Christian Boltanski, and they developed a rather unique curatorial approach to this exhibition — visitors are invited to do all the things they don't normally do at an exhibition, such as touch the works, take works home, or help themselves to clothes in the huge piles scattered around the exhibition space. Not only are the visitors actively engaging with the show, but they are simultaneously changing the shape and look of the show as well, with this activity logically leading to an empty exhibition space. As a curator myself, I love the idea of throwing out the rule book for visiting exhibitions, and this booklet by Linke displays visitors to the Serpentine exhibition engaged in doing just that — bravo!

8 pages, one-sided, 5 3/4" (h) x 4" (w), when fully opened 2ft 9".

As an aside to how one is supposed to act at an exhibition, and in contrast to the above theme of taking things away — is, its reverse of adding things to an exhibition. I'm assuming this activity has a long and secret unwritten history, but I want to note here my own recent efforts in this regard. A couple of weeks ago I visited an exhibition at a distinguished cultural venue and they had a thematic show of works from their collection. One of the sections opened with a rather interesting work by Gary Simmons, titled "Us and Them" (1991) as below:

Now, I happened to have on my person a number of the small double-sided cards I've been doing since our current president came to power. This particular card has a personal resonance (I'm an immigrant to the USA) and in light of the president's war on immigrants (us and them) I slipped the double-sided card below into the pocket of the bath robe with "Them" on its back. Nobody gets hurt, I inadvertently get into the permanent collection — until of course it's discovered, which I'm assuming might take some time. Here's the card with texts from both sides.