Sans Niveau ni Metre, Pli Selon Pli: Leporellos d'artistes, #63, with Simon Cutts, Universite Rennes 2, Rennes, France, 2023

Sans Niveau ni Metre is the house organ for the artists' book collection at the University of Rennes 2 and different issues serve as catalogues for the exhibitions & special projects curated from the University's archive and its partners.

This special leporello issue is a catalogue for an exhibition that myself and Marie Boivent (University of Rennes) co-curated with a combination of leporellos from the University's artists' book collection and some from my collection. One side of the catalogue is taken up with a text by us around the theme of the show as well exploring the varied issues related to the leporello format using examples from the show. While on the other side is a page work commissioned from Simon Cutts the longtime Brit publisher who with his partner Erica Van Horn run Coracle Press out of Ireland. His piece reflects upon the leporello and its own method of transmission and communication.

4 double-sided pages, individually 11.75" x 8.5", and when unfolded 2ft 10"

Simon Cutt's piece

Paul McCartney, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eye of the Storm, National Portrait Gallery Publications, London, 2023

This accordion was a bit of a surprise to me.

Published by the National Portrait Gallery in conjunction with an exhibition of recently re-discovered photographs taken by McCartney, the exhibition was up from June 28 - October 1, 2023. Documentation of the exhibition [Paul McCartney Photographs] reveals a lively installation with quite distinctive settings for each different series of photographs. This publication displays none of this liveliness and the selection of photographs is nothing special, indeed at least two of them could not have been taken by McCartney as he's in them, and no special effort has been made to utilize the qualities of the accordion format to the book's advantage. A missed opportunity—but then Paul was never my favorite Beatle anyway!!

8 double-sided pages, individual pages 8.25" x 7" and when unfolded 4ft 8"

reverse side

back cover

Alice Guareschi, Je m'appelle Olympia, L'Olympia Music Hall, Paris, 2012

Inspired by a visit to this legendary Parisian music hall and its rich theatrical history, Guareschi was "...mesmerized by the silent wonder of the lights...," and subsequently created this work in response to this vivid experience. A text on the inside of the cover explains in greater detail the different elements that come together in this piece:

"Je m’appelle Olympia is an action for house lights performed by Alice Guareschi on just one occasion at the Olympia Music Hall, the legendary and iconic Parisian venue, on April 12, 2012. The sixteen photographs that make up the series on show at MAN were shot on the same day, right after the live activation of the light choreography in the theatre’s empty space, which involved all thirteen of the coloured lighting channels that are permanently integrated into the architecture. With a fixed framing, similar but not identical, following the precise original lighting score composed by the artist, the images present a sequence of different movements of lights in the auditorium. The photographic series thus becomes a new synthesis of the image-idea and intention behind the performance: to activate a theatre when no show is happening on stage, to play it live, to reawaken its latent memory and the secret life that eludes the spectator’s gaze. By breaking down the duration of the action into photograms that can be viewed either separately or all together, the spatial arrangement of the work now makes it possible to embrace the overall idea at a glance."

This book was made on the occasion of the exhibition Je m’appelle Olympia, Museo d’Arte Provincia di Nuoro (MAN), Italy, July 14–September 17, 2023.

Alice Guareschi (1976) is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Milano. She holds a MA in Philosophy from the University of Bologna with a thesis on experimental cinema. Over the years her work has included a wide range of media such as writing, sculpture and video. In 2005 she was resident artist at the Palais de Tokyo’s Le Pavillon in Paris, in 2012 and 2015 at the Cité Internationale des Arts. Other residencies include Triangle, New York, and Kaus Australis, Rotterdam..

19 double-sided pages, individually 5.5" x 7" and when unfolded 11ft 1"

back cover

Hamish Fulton, Horizon to Horizon, Coracle Press for Orchard Gallery, Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 1983

Hamish Fulton identifies himself as a 'walking artist' and since 1969 has made walks in 26 countries. This publication records "a walk from the town of galway to the town of derry ireland July 8-16 1981" coupled with Fulton's documentation of the profiles of the mountain ranges he passed on his walk. Furthermore, Fulton has incorporated words into the piece that reflect things he saw and experienced during the walk and they add a haiku-like perspective to this documentation of Fulton's essentially ephemeral art practice.

For another of Fulton's works on this blog see his Ajawaan (1987) here: Hamish Fulton, Ajawaan.  

3 double-sided pages, individually 3.75" x 7.5" and when unfolded 1ft 10.5"

final page

Lawrence Ferlinghetti (ed), The Accordion Series, #1: Paul Landry, #3: T. Walden, #6: William Cody Maher, #8: H.D. Moe, #9: Kathy Goss, City Lights Books, San Francisco, 1988

This is a really interesting series of individual poet's works published in the accordion format that was designed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021), and would seem to follow the same pattern as the City Lights Pocket Poet Series in making poetry available in a cheap and handy format.

Surprisingly I've not been able to find any information about this series, not even how many accordions were published, although Kathy Goss' is 9th in the series. It's admirable that Ferlinghetti experimented with presenting poetry in this innovative format, although it does not substantially add to the experience of the work, except that it does allow the viewer/reader to discern patterns in the writing and see how the spaces between sections creates its own kind of visuality not available in a traditional book.

All of them have the same format: 6 double-sided pages, individually 6.5" x 4.5" and when unfolded 2ft 3".

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