John Sibbick, Flesh and Bone, London: Nobrow Ltd., 2011

Another cool double-sided publication from London's Nobrow press' series of accordions — see previous entry for Micah Lidberg's beautiful Rise & Fall, 2010. John Sibbick is a self described palaeoartist and a superb draughtsman of these historically accurate reconstructions of the prehistoric period with all its animals and flora & fauna. Individual pages 9.25" x 5.5", extended 4' 7". The following text is from Nobrow's listing of this accordion. Visit them at: http://www.nobrow.net/

Flesh and Bones is John Sibbick’s first collaboration with NoBrow. Many of you will have grown up leafing through John’s meticulously illustrated natural history and dinosaur books, in fact, John is probably responsible for what you think a dinosaur, or dinosaurs in general, look like in their general outward appearance.

He has covered a variety of subjects ranging from educational to fantasy. He is probably best known for his prehistoric reconstructions in books, magazines, museums, television and other media.

This beautiful concertina book, on the other hand, gives you an intimate look at what animals you may have actually seen or at least have seen photographs of, look like on the inside. In the great spirit of those diagrammatic natural history books we all loved as children, Nobrow and John bring back the sense of wonder the natural world holds in all its awe inspiring complexity. Flesh and Bone folds out to a stunning 136 cm double-sided panorama, one side displays the animals as they appear in nature (with some playful twists) and the other side shows those same animals stripped down to bone. Only an experienced artist with as intimate a knowledge of animal anatomy as John, whose clients frequently include National Geographic and Puffin books, would be capable of such feats of visual dexterity.

The concertina can be coloured in, left as is, read or folded out and displayed on your mantle peice, Flesh and Bones: A Colouring Concertina is a great gift for a kid as much as it is is for a student of nature, draughtsman in training, or any illustration afficionado.

John Sibbick trained in Graphics and Illustration at Guildford College of Art in the south of England, followed by four years in design studios in London before becoming a freelance illustrator in 1972.

John has designed a number of dinosaur exhibits for a variety of prestigious National institutions including London’s Natural History Museum, the Museum of Scotland and The Gamagori Museum in Japan and has worked as an illustrator for a number of respected publishers of natural history books including National Geographic, Kingfisher and Puffin.