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
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
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
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".
