Richard Serra, Drawings, Richard Hines Gallery, Seattle, WA, 1979

Accordion catalogue with 10 installation images that document this exhibition of  7 works made with Belgian Paintstick on Belgium linens.  6.25" (h) x 70" (w)

Christo, Wrap In Wrap Out, perforated postcard strip, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, January 18 - March 2, 1969

For a period of 40 days, Jan van der Marck, the director of the MCA, allowed the museum to be wrapped inside and out by Christo. In his introduction to this accordion strip of perforated postcard documentation he says: "The Museum of Contemporary Art has been wrapped with 10,000 square feet of canvas tarpaulins.

The resulting museum-size package, a monument to the world of art, will remain wrapped for forty days after which the everyday exterior will again be bared.

With the whole idea of a modern museum and its usefulness is somewhat up for grabs, Christo's packaged monument succeeds in parodying all the associations a museum evokes: a mausoleum, a repository for precious contents, an intent to "wrap up" all of art history."  Size: 5.25" (w) x 8' (h)

Bernard Lassus, Les Pins, Coracle Press, London, 1983

An 11 page accordion whose images are made from the bark of the pines in the Forte de la Courbre, on the French Atlantic coast. Presented as one long strip it serves as a mini cross-section of this wood and reflects Lassus' long involvement with tree bark as a new kind of material. Edition 750, 2.75" (h) x 66" (l)  

Sandwich, #4, Jean Kristau, Le Dernier Cri, Marseilles, France, 1997.

One in a series of two-sided limited edition screenprinted accordions by guest artists. Simple and elegant format from the Le Dernier Cri crew in France. 5" (h) x 42.75" (l)  

Dogan Surek, The Cup We All Race 4, Germany, 1997

A quietly philosophical 12 page accordion exploring ambition and time. Surek is a very prolific book artist and many of his works are available at Bookie Wookie in Amseterdam:  Welcome to Boekie Woekie 5.75" (h) x 48" (l)

American Indians, photo-strip, Berkeley, California, nd

Souvenir photo strip of Native Americans with all the typical ethnically stereotyped imagery from the 1940s and 1950s. 

Nora Ligorano & Marshall Reese, Line Up, Pureproductionsusa, 2005

Accordion with perforated mugshot postcards of the Bush cabal with statements by them on the reverse. "With the passage of the Patriot Act, the status of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and the fact that there are now more people incarcerated in the U.S. than any other country in the world, the mugshot has become the preeminent form of portraiture today." Editors statement. Available for $6.95 from PrintedMatter.org  4.25" (h) x 3' 2.75" (l)

Line Up, frontispiece and back of strip

Berwyn Hung, A Simple Guide to Life, Book? Press, 1996

Smart, sharp, minimal and almost profound.  Berwyn Hung is a prolific Atlanta book maker.  

Judex, Untitled, Le Dernier Cri: Marseilles, France, 2007-08

A fantastic artists' book that combines three accordions with intersecting narratives (+ CD). Another great product from the Le Dernier Cri crew. Here's a link to the artists' web site: www.leoquievreux.net and Le Dernier Cri: Dernier Cri

Leif Goldberg, two postcard accordions, silkscreen prints, 2007-2008

National Waste Postal Cards, 2007. Two sets of perforated silkscreened postcards by this cool and quirky artist from Rhode Island.  Watch out for his yearly calendars as well!  5.5" (h) x 28" (l)

Tramp & Stamp, 2008.  5.5" (h) x 28" (l)

Private Stash: A Pin-Up Girl Portfolio by 20 Cartoonists, Buenaventura Press: Oakland, 2006.

Book with slipcase and cover

The cover art for this book is by Rick Altergott and it includes portraits of all the 20 artists in this wonderfully politically incorrect accordion gallery of girly images. The artists are: Rick Altergott, Peter Bagge, Jonathan Brunetti, Ivan Brunetti, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, R. Crumb, Kim Deitch, Sammy Harkham, Tim Hensley, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Tony Millionaire, Mitch O'Connell, Gary Panter, Archer Prewith, Ron Rege, Jr., Richard Sala, Adrian Tamine and Dan Zttwoch.

Individual pages 7" x 7", fully extended 11' 8."

Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to Border Patrol, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Enrique Chagoya & Felicia Rice, San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002

A wonderfully powerful publication that self-consciously embraces the format, and visual style of the pre-Hispanic codices, Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol (2002), is a collaboration between Guillermo Gómez-Peña (performance artist), Enrique Chagoya (artist), and Felicia Rice (typographer/printer).  

This accordion is a riotous mixture of texts collaged together with imagery from pre-Hispanic, colonial and contemporary comic book sources that playfully subvert the traditional historical narratives of the relationship between the USA and Mexico. This "post-Columbian codex" adopts the traditional format of being read from the back to the front, while the individual two-page spreads read from left to right. Originally published in 1998 in an edition of 50 by Rice's press, Moving Parts Press, and then published in trade edition in 2000 and this version reprinted in 2002. Incredibly this fantastic publication is still available for about $15! 

30 individual one-sided pages at 7" (h) x 9" (w), and when fully opening its 22ft 6inches long.

Bob & Roberta Smith, We Spy USA, Purgatory Pie Press: New York, 1998

Bob & Roberta Smith is an energetic Brit word artist and this is a hilarious accordion in which the shape of each US state is printed per page and underneath is printed its 'mis-identification' by people in London, UK. Printed in an edition of 100 and still available for $50 from Purgatory Pie Press-PPP Size: 2" (h) x 12' (l)

Ian Hamilton Finlay, Evolution, Wild Hawthorn Press: Little Sparta, Scotland, 1994

At 2" wide and 12" tall this tiny accordion packs a big punch and reflects Finlay's interest in the Revolutionary period in France. This feisty and incorrigible concrete poet and Scotsman died in 2006 leaving behind one of the most unique gardens on that sceptered isle, Little Sparta. Little Sparta Trust website


Finlay's works are still available at very reasonable prices (Evolution is £5/$8) at: Wild Hawthorn Press - Cards Index

Olaf Nicolai, Landschaft: Ansichten nach der Natur, Leipzig, Germany: Jenoptik AG and Edition 931, 1996

Documentation of Nicolai's exhibition "Landschaft/Interieur," at the Galeri Jenotik,

Berlin. June/July, 1996.  This perforated strip of color photograhs document the

plants and rocks that were featured in this exhibition. 3" (h) x 45" (l)