Anders Nilsen, ABRAXAS: Box landscape with chase scene, 2019, ed. 250

Front of the wraparound cover

I'm posting Anders' story of how this book came about and where it fits in with his other book projects, as well as the technical issues involved in publishing it. 

"One day back in 2012 I got an email from my friend Monica Choy, inviting me to participate in a group show. She was sending several artists small blank hand-made accordion books, asking that we keep them as sketchbooks for a month and then send them back to be shown in the show at Hellion Gallery in Portland (I was living in Minneapolis at the time). After one or two false starts I ended up doing a long, continuous landscape drawing, depicting a chase scene unfolding through the landscape, populated with weird flowers and colored boxes. I was about to publish Rage of Poseidon at the time, also an accordion (see this blog), and was interested in exploring the form a little more. I got into it enough that I ended up attaching a couple extra feet of paper to extend the scene.

The piece ended up having resonance in my other work for the next several years. The fantastical plant forms, and the idea of a long continuous landscape are recapitulated in A Walk in Eden, the coloring book I did in 2016. And the characters and the boxes feed pretty directly into Tongues. In retrospect I think of the piece as a sort of 'proto-prequel' to that book both visually and thematically.

The original piece was later shown in Minneapolis in a book-arts-and-comics exhibition called The Book in Extemis at MCAS during the PFC residency in 2015, and again at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth in their Comic Tragics show in 2015. Showing the original as an object or as a drawing was great, but I've wanted to figure out a way to publish it ever since the Hellion show. That was easier said than done. Printing and folding a seven foot long accordion is not a simple or cheap proposition. And figuring out a good binding is even less so. I played with various ideas and prototypes over the years and taught myself some rudimentary bookbinding techniques, eventually settling on a more or less workable compromise. And so now its available..."  New Accordion Book: Box Landscape with Chase Scene — Anders Nilsen

15 single-sided pages, individually 5" x 7.25", and when fully open 6ft 2".

Front page of the accordion

Back of wraparound cover

Hokusai, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Prestel Verlag, Munich, London, New York, 2019/2021

Accordion and its slipcase

A smart and compact reproduction of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai's (1760-1849) famous series of prints from the early 1830s. The brochure that accompanies the accordion has a text by Amelie Balcou in which she outlines the importance of this series, both formally, as well as the importance of Mount Fuji to the larger Japanese culture. She also includes brief comments on each individual print. 

Its interesting to me to ponder the issues involved in reproducing an artists' works in a format (accordion) that they were never originally presented in (to my knowledge anyway). Either way this is an original and economically priced introduction to this important artists' works.

91 single-sided pages, individually 6.25" x 9", and when fully open 47ft 4.75"

Two different views of the accordion

Pascale Estellon, ABÉCÉDAIRE, Editions des Grandes Personnes, Paris, 2016, 2nd edition

Cover of the book's wraparound cover

This is a really well designed abécédaire or alphabet book, with 2 page spreads for each letter coupled with many foldable and interactive elements inserted throughout. The book feels comfortable in one's hands and the paper is thick, with a firm quality, that I'm sure would bear up well in its interactions with very young people and their inquisitive hands and fingers!

26 double-sided pages, individually 11.75" x 8.25" and when fully opened 17ft 10.5".

Front page of the accordion

Reverse side of book

Back page of the accordion

Cover of the wraparound cover

R. Clarke-Davis, "a bOOK OF WaNdER What'S bECOMINg cOMMONPLaCE," and "Um Livrinho Cotidiano: Porém," Kiddy Viddy Press, 2021

Two recent accordion/puzzle books from Clarke-Davis. The first one, a bOOK OF WaNdER What'S bECOMINg cOMMONPLaCE, is the most explicitly political of the books he's sent me. All the photographs were taken in the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, which has recently become infamous for the acquittal of 17-year old Kyle Rittenhouse in the killing of 2 anti-racist demonstrators and injuring another, during a protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake. This work is a powerful paean to the events that have unfolded in Kenosha since Blake's shooting on August 23, 2020, and the final photograph on the back cover literally points to how much work has to be done as we move forward.

The second accordion, Um Livrinho Cotidiano: Porém is a travel journal with photographs from Brazil (I think!) with a powerful central panorama of 5 photographs of street art.

Both books: 10 double-sided pages measuring 5.5" x 4.25", when opened 17" x 5.5", and when the work is unfolded 11" x 17".

a bOOK OF WaNdER What'S bECOMINg cOMMONPLaCE, 2021

Back Cover

                               Um Livrinho Cotidiano: Porém, 2021

Back Cover

Bill Gaglione, Fluxus, 2022

A surprise accordion from Picasso Gaglione in Knoxville. Definitely a minimalist piece from this post-dada artist — stripped down to the basics with its four rubber stamped letters on the humblest of materials. Fluxus Lives!

3 double-sided pages, individually 16" x 10", and when fully open 2' 6".

Back of the accordion

Sally Pine, Alphabet Alligator, Autumn Publishing, London, 2021

I recently took a dive into looking at other types of accordion books, and I surfaced amongst the longstanding tradition of children's alphabet books. I realized also that there are a number of alphabet books already posted on this blog with Marie Bataille's being the most recent. Either way, with this particular book I enjoy the play with the accordion/alligator shape, plus it looks like a really fun way to learn the basics of language and the alphabet!

10 double-sided pages, various sizes from 5" x 5.5" to smaller, and when fully open 4.5 ft.

Reverse side of the book

Derrick Adams, Our Time Together, inkjet print on vinyl, 2021

This accordion is the catalogue for a site specific mural created for the Milwaukee Art Museum. The work celebrates the rituals of Black life and leisure, and includes important sites of Black culture in Milwaukee, and combined with Adams' figures are photographs from The Milwaukee Journal illustrating these sites and the people associated with them. This catalogue has numbers inserted throughout that refer to a list of descriptions of handwritten notes that have been transcribed from the backs of the original photographs. This mural also pays homage to Romare Bearden's collage "The Block" (1971) which also celebrates public spaces where people gather.

Adams, a Brooklyn-based artist, writes the following in his statement about this work:

"Respect and admiration for the perseverance of Black Americans in their pursuit of happiness—this is the guiding sentiment behind the installation "Our Time Together."

With this work, I highlight Milwaukee by representing commercial and civic gathering spaces know within the Black community, where people are united in ways that may go unnoticed. That these sites of connection are overlooked is due to the nature of how we occupy public and private spaces, and how our movements are perceived by outsiders looking in. These places, and those who spend time in them, are essential to the growth of American society as a whole—to its cultural, political, and creative output, which spreads out to a global audience. These contemporary localities evoke the spirit of the businesses and safe havens featured in "The Green Book" (originally titled "The Negro Motorist Travel Guide"), a Jim Crow-era guidebook for Black Americans by Victor Hugo Green and his wife, Alma, published from 1936-1966.

"The Green Book" is an important archive that documents where Black people were allowed to travel and stay, with pride and dignity in the face of adversity, from one destination to another, giving us a sense of security that was not offered by our nation. Our ability to assemble has been subject to the assumptions of others about our intentions that have brought notable historical events—some by chance, others by design. We have persevered despite undermining forces because of our adaptability. We have reconceived commercial and domestic structures—like barbershops, coffee shops, homes, community centers, and churches—as sites for social gathering and political engagement when necessary. "Our Time Together" speaks to transformation, belonging, and normalcy."

Thanks to Lewis Koch for bringing this accordion to my attention!

7 pages double-sided, individual pages 9" x 4", and when fully open 2ft 4".

Reverse side

Romare Bearden (1911-1988) "The Block," mixed media, 1971

Back cover