Niki de Saint Phalle, Harry and Me 1950-1960: The Family Years, Benteli Publishers, Switzerland, 2006

I've always enjoyed Niki de Saint Phalle's funky aesthetic, in fact her accordion book 'My Love' (1971) was the publication that made me look further at accordion books and it directly inspired me to start this blog - so I owe a lot to this formidable artist. This book is not an accordion but a very frank autobiographical account of the years 1950-60, and of her marriage to Harry Mathews. The interesting fact about this book is that she includes Mathews' comments and memories, and he offers his own perspective on events and incidents that happened during their lives together.

However, interspersed across this book are three fold-out sections and one is an accordion fold!  As you can see Phalle addresses the pressing social and political issues of this decade in a very direct manner, with the atomic cloud hovering over the whole piece. I think this is a powerful work and just had to include it in this blog.

Follow this link to check out 'My Love' (1971) in this blog: 
https://accordionpublications.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-love-niki-de-saint-phalle-malmo.html

Erika Rier, Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, Portland, nd

A fun accordion with smart illustrations by Erika. This book is based on the 'nonsense' poem by Lewis Carroll, with the first stanza written and printed in 1855, but it was not until his book Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There was published, did the final version see the light of day in 1871. This lively accordion book really brings this curious poem to life!

Check out Erika's website for a number of her other accordions as well as her other excellent illustrated works, https://www.erikarier.com/

Single page 5" (h) x 4.25" (w), double-sided with 16 pages in total, and when fully opened it's 2' 10". 

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back of book

Natasha Zahn Pristas, Alphabet Alaska, Kodiak Island, Alaska, 2018

A fun kid's book of collages depicting animals and nature, from this artist who lives on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. It's not hard to see how profoundly Natasha's been inspired by her environment, and the spirit of this place is deeply interwoven into these works and this book. For more about Natasha and her work go to:
https://www.natashazahnpristas.com/natasha.html

Individual pages 5" (h) x 5" (w), 22 pages single-sided, and when fully opened 10'.

back of book

Souvenir of Niagara Fall, Canada, nd

A sweet little album of sepia toned photographs of the Niagara Falls. The word 'souvenir' has its roots in the 18th century with the French word souvenir meaning 'remember,' which is from the Latin word subvenire meaning to 'occur to the mind.'

9 pages, single-sided, individual pages 3.5" (h) x 6.5 (w) and when fully opened 3' 2.5".

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Jean Dubuffet: The Last Two Years, The Pace Gallery, New York, 2012

A really handsome catalogue for an exhibition of Dubuffet's at The Pace Gallery, in 2012, featuring works from his last two years. An informative introductory essay by Harmony Murphy leads the way and then his last works are spread out with a nice rhythm on both sides of this accordion. The cardboard covers give this publication a really nice physicality and touch. All of this combines to give these kind of scratchy works, a space in which they can breathe, and do their work on the viewer.

See below for another catalogue from Pace of Dubuffet's works.

Page dimensions 11" (h) x 9.5" (w), 16 pages, and when fully opened 6ft 4".

front

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back cover

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Dubuffet: Excursions in no man's space, Pace, New York, 2013

This is an exhibition catalogue that accompanied a mini-survey of late drawings by this well-known French artist who was both a painter and a sculptor. Influenced by what we now call 'Outsider Art,' Dubuffet used non-traditional materials in his works in a desire for a more direct experience, and it was this search that led him to be influenced by artists' working well outside the mainstream art world. In turn, he created the term 'Art Brut' (Raw Art) for these artists and their art, and subsequently he amassed a large collection of such work which is now located in the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. For people in, or near Chicago, a large outdoor sculpture of Dubuffet's can be found in the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.  

10 pages, double-sided, individual pages 8"(h) x 5.5"(w) and when open 5' 11.5".

Sam Rictus, La Loge de fer (The Iron Lodge), Le Dernier Cri, Marseille, France, 2019, ed. 200

Strictly speaking this is not really an accordion, however in 2 sections when the folded pages are opened up and they join together, it does create an accordion effect. Sam Rictus is the nom de plume of Samuel Guillet who was born in France in 1980. Introduced to the silkscreen process by the folks art Le Dernier Cri, he's since then produced a number of books and prints in his trademark dense style, all depicting fantastic creatures.  Of his work he says: 

"My fascination for the fantastic and the monstrous was expressed by the drawing which allowed me since childhood, to invent my own creatures and mythologies.

My drawings are a series in which the different characters form the bestiary of a dark imaginary world, composed of tribal constructions and architectures, from the depths of the ages, populated by camouflaged fauna, inserted in landscapes whose elements: stone, earth, plant seem to be in fusion. This magma exudes a bustling vitality despite the frozen line of the image and its impenetrable appearance at first glance.

The spectator gradually enters this world of folklore and cults archaic, and distinguishes its composition step by step, as if he were exploring an unknown, wild world…

My subject joins the technique, which is also abundant: I draw improvisation, starting my image at various places on the sheet, without knowing where I'm going, the shapes emerging as the drawn areas meet".

16 double-sided screen printed pages, individual pages measure 11.75"(h) x 9.25"(w), and when four pages are opened together the width is 3ft 1".

Juan Yactayo Sono, Coto de Caza (Hunting Reserve), Pegueño Pato, Lima, Peru, 2017, 1st edition.

Presented in a smart silkscreened box (not like the damaged one I have here!), are 5 double-sided accordions with photographs on each side, one small book with short snippets of conversations in Spanish, and a smaller one with the English translations of these negotiations for sex.

Sono is our guide as he takes us into the 'hunting reserve' of illegal cruising places in Lima, where people are engaged in having anonymous sex, and the 5 accordions record the darkened places where these men have these sexual encounters. There's a real charged feeling to these accordions, and the depictions of these darkened places immerse the reader in what Sono describes as places of "pleasure, darkness, fear, tension and loneliness."

In the final page of both books is a statement by Sono that very eloquently summarizes his experiences of these erotic and sexually charged locations:

Perhaps for many people the anonymity of these cruising spots is the only way to come out and interact with other gay people. For others, maybe, it can mean the search for a sexual freedom that is not outside, because outside one must behave in certain ways. Even these places may not be charged with any prejudice, and just be places where you can go to have sex. Regardless of the reasons that attracts us to these spaces, once inside there is no judgement. We are all the same. Finally here I can be whoever I want to be.

The 5 accordions are the same sizes and length, and individually each is comprised of 6 pages with a total of 12 images, and each individual page is 4"(h) x 5.5"(w), and when fully opened each accordion is 2ft 9".