Alfonson Barrera, Mascaras, 2016/2021, Polvoh Press, Oaxaca, Mexico, ed. 500

While I would not define this artists' book as an accordion, there are some accordion-like features that appear when the series of folded pages found throughout this book are opened up. My definition of an accordion is a work that has two or more folds, and thus the various fold-outs in this publication meet that definition. Either way this book, printed on thick card, is a lively and engaging series of faces all decorated in a number of different 'mascaras.'

6.25" tall, and 5.25" wide, with 25 pages, 8 color silkscreen, with folded covers. For another book from this press check out Barrera's 'Random Spleen,' 2019.

last page with inside of folded back cover

back cover

Féros, #4, 2019, France, ed. 500

Féros is one of the very few contemporary erotic accordions that I have come across, so I tip my hat to the editors Florence Andoka and Clement Gagliano for its run of 5 yearly issues between 2015-2020, and in particular this cool special accordion issue. The accordion comes separately from the sharp silver cover that encloses it, and it also comes with two inserts, with the slide on the front cover revealing a vulva, and there's a photographic print of an uncircumcised penis further inside the issue. Accompanying the publication is a folded brochure with images of each artists' work and their name, as well as a small card with an editorial for issue #4 (illustrated below).

Here is a description of the magazine from their distributor's website, les presses du réel, in Dijon, France:

"Féros is an erotic magazine. Sometimes sensual, sometimes sexual, Féros calls to senses to awaken. Contemporary by definition, it explores with an obsessive eye aesthetic and contemporary fascinations for instinct in human nature. Its publication imposes the need to reveal the principles at stake in a contemporary vision of Eros, which is constantly seeking for and redefining itself, without interference. Féros only includes visual arts, symbolic projects. Polyphonic and composite, Féros puts yearly its focus on a specific theme. In each issue, pieces of arts and literature intertwine, interact freely and in a harmonized dialogue. Wild and rare beauty: Féros.

Published between 2015 and 2020, Féros was a hybrid form, intertwining artist book, magazine and bibliophilic book. It tends to give clues on contemporary sexualities and erotic practices through an aesthetic prism and from a contemporary art point of view. It explores the boundaries and links between erotica and pornography, sexuality and sensuality, as much as the distinctions between desired and desiring entities. Leaving the door open on purpose, Féros does not pretend to give a sociological answer or a single way to go on the subject, but rather draws a panoramic view, via a specific curating on the edition of each issue, of nowadays practices and representation types of Eros. The final objects thus takes the form of an exhibition, built through pages that viewers may touch and turn, a physical space including its own restriction and advantages, artistic as well as aesthetic. Both visual and tactile experiment, the artworks, printed on the peculiar skin that is paper, are driven together, can apprehend each other and can freely dialogue over the pages."

22 double-sided pages, individual pages 9.5" x 6.75", and when fully opened 12' 4.5".

reverse side

editorial statement for this issue #4

back cover with list of contributor's names

Lauren Emeritz, Hand Carved Alphabet, Abstract Orange Press, Washington DC, 2016, ed. 300

A cute miniature alphabet book hand carved from wood. Emeritz is a book artist, letterpress printer and graphic artist who founded and runs the Abstract Orange Press. She creates prints and books by hand using a Vandercook press and wood type, including type she designs and carves herself. [The Kelmscott Bookshop].

28 single-sided pages, individual pages 2" x 1.5", and when fully open 3' 6".

end pages

Franz Dasbourg, Melusina, Redfoxpress, Ireland, 2020, ed. 70

Another smart screen-printed accordion from Redfoxpress. This work by the artist, sculptor and painter who is based in Luxembourg, revolves around the European folkloric figure of Melusina, who was a female spirit of fresh water or water nymph, who is usually depicted as a serpent, fish or mermaid. 

There are many tales attached to her and the following one is related to a statue of her near Alzette in Luxembourg, and it relates to her insistence to her various husbands that she needed one day a week for absolute privacy and she made them swear to honor this request. Of course they were unable to keep this promise and one husband "could not resist temptation, and on one of the forbidden days he spied on her in her bath and discovered her to be a mermaid. When he let out a surprised cry, Melusina caught sight of him, and her bath immediately sank into the solid rock, carrying here with it. Melusina surfaces briefly every seven years as a beautiful woman or as a serpent, holding a small golden key in her mouth. Whoever takes the key from her will set her free and may claim her as his bride." In 1997 Luxembourg issued a stamp commemorating her. [wikipedia]

8 double-sided pages, individual pages 6.25" x 4", and when opened up 2' 8".

front side

reverse

Inès Bonduki, Linha Vermelha, Red Line, Editora Tempo d'Imagem, Fortaleza, Brazil, 2017, ed. 600

This is a really powerful and moving accordion that takes full advantage of the unique expansiveness of the accordion format. Begun as part of her MA in Visual Arts course work it was originally self-published in a small edition of fifteen in 2016. Of this work Bonduki writes:

 "Between 2013 and 2015, I was dedicated to going and returning countless times on the Red Line of Sao Paulo's Metro at its peak hours, to experience and try to photograph the bodily and emotional intensity of this daily experience of 3 million people from Sao Paolo.

At the same time, I recorded the also intense dance jams in Sao Paulo (Contact Improvisation), in which bodily interaction takes place in an expansive way and from the sensitive listening of the other. By associating these two realities in the edition of the book Red Line, I realized that they came together and mixed, becoming almost the same."  

One commentator has noted how this book manages to convey something of the "corporal experience of urban life," and I would also add the sensuousness of this life as well.

Running in a long line along the length of the reverse is a text which seems to be a free verse poem in response to the experience of being in such close proximity to one's fellow travelers. This piece is by Marcelo Segreto.

43 double-sided pages, individual pages 6.5" x 6.5", and when opened 23' 3.5".

credits info inside the back cover

back cover

Jean-Charles Blais, Miracle, Editions Analogues, Arles, France, 2004

This accordion is the catalogue for Blais' one-person exhibition titled Miracle that featured works of his from the years 2000-2004, and was shown at the Musée Réattu in Arles, France from July 8 - October 10, 2004.

On one side of the catalogue the pages are comprised of completely black and white shapes that undulate across the pages, and appear to be selections from his video works. I rather liked this return to basics and the presence of large expanses of white pages was strangely attractive to me.

The reverse side goes into detail about his philosophy and features a variety of the works in the show. My apologies to French speakers as my translation skills are no match for the texts printed here, but it appears Blais works with installations in public spaces as well as working in video. 

32 double-sided pages, individual pages 11.75" x 7.75", and when fully open it measures 20' 8".

catalogue sleeve and catalogue

reverse side of catalogue with catalogue sleeve

 

Bureau d'Investigation Photographique (BIP), Kyrielle, Editions Incertain Sens, Rennes, 2017, ed. 300

The BIP (Bureau of Photographic Investigation) is a French collective of seven photographers and this accordion represents ten years of work carried out between 2005 and 2015. The photographers are: Antoine Chaudet, Bruno Elizabeth, Richard Louvet, Damien Mousseau, Emilie Traverse, Matthieu Tremblin and Philemon Vanorle.

The structure of this book is based on a Kyrielle, which is a French form of rhyming poetry, and here each photographer chose an image that responded to the one before it, thus creating a work that is connected by the associations each photographer discerned in the previous work. The result is an accordion exhibition of the group's work. Also included in this book is a sheet with the photographers names and the works of their's included in this book. 

34 double-sided pages, individual pages 8.5" x 6.25", and when fully opened 17' 8.5".

back cover with statement about the book