Rohima Chitrakar and V. Geetha, A Village is a Busy Place!, Tara Books, India, 2019

Another beautiful folded scroll in the Bengal Patua painting style from the folks at Tara Books. From an elevated vantage point the viewer can survey the Santha people, who reside in the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand, as they go about daily life in the village. On the back of each fold are short texts that draw our attention to the variety of activities taking place and encouraging us to look closer at what's being depicted in the scroll. The themes for these inquiries are: A Village Feast, A Day in the Village, Common Space, In the Evening, Work and Summertime. As you open up the book it becomes an unfolding journey through all that is taking place in this aerial view of village life, wonderfully rendered in the inimitable Patua style by V. Geetha.

8 pages double-sided, each page 8" x 14.25" and when fully opened 5ft 4"

                 

              

back cover

Oliver Jeffers, An Alphabet Fold-out A-Z, Harper Collins, London, 2017

slipcase and book

A beautifully designed and illustrated alphabet story book by this Irish artist who has been lauded for his artistic skill, and whose books have been translated into over fifty languages and sold over 14 million copies. Aside from his numerous artistic accomplishments he was also awarded an MBE from Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth for Special Services to the Arts.

12 pages, double-sided, individually 5.5" by 5.5", and when fully opened 5ft 6".

slipcase and back cover

Isol (Marisol Misenta), It's Useful to Have a Duck, Groundbook Books/House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2007

the book with its slipcase

I'm not going to say anything about this fun kid's book by this well known award-winning Argentinean illustrator and pop singer, as i don't want to give away the book's punchline!

16 double-sided pages, individually 6.25" by 6" and when fully open 8ft.

the back of the book with slipcase

Antoine d'Agata, New York 1989-93, Andre Freres Editions, Marseille, France, 2016

A very powerful accordion from this well-known French photographer comprised of mostly black and white images, with five color works added to the mix. The book opens with a photo of his beloved grandfather with a bunch of his mates, and then on the second page is half a portrait of his mother's face joined by the page's fold with another half portrait of his father overleaf, all of which creates a third person, namely d'Agata himself. From there the book descends into some dark spaces with images of drug taking accompanied by a deep sense of despair and loneliness.

In a booklet that comes with this accordion d'Agata writes about his family, and his mother and father's deep connections to Sicily. His teenage years were troubled and marked by a variety of different jobs along with copious drug taking. D'Agata sums up this period, "I listened to the Sex Pistols and threw cocktails Molotov in supermarkets and enjoyed fights the cops, the rich kids, the people demonstrating in the streets, the shopkeepers... everybody I guess."

This accordion is the first in a planned series of twelve, with one commentator noting that d'Agata has specifically chosen the accordion format because he "...rejected the idea of having them in a classic format forgotten on a shelf. Instead, an accordion-folded format allows for the book to be displayed on a table or a wall."

24 single-sided pages, individually 7" x 5.25", and when fully open 10ft 6".

back cover with numbering indicating this is the first in a series of twelve

Norman Behrendt, Greetings from Turkey, Hartmann Books, Stuttgart, 2017, ed. 800

This is a quietly political book from this Berlin-based photographer and this accordion consists of 17 detachable postcards each featuring a photograph of a recently built Turkish mosque located in the suburbs of Ankara and Istanbul, with additional information on the back about where they are located and when they were completed. This book is a small sampler of works from Behrendt's future book "Brave New Turkey." This project was started in 2014 with this accordion edition published in two colors: green with the EU visa facilitation, and the red with only the biometric symbol indicating it's a biometric passport. 

On his website Behrendt includes an article by Suzy Hansen from the New York Times Magazine (June 18th, 2017) titled "Reading Erdoğan's Ambitions in Turkey's New Mosques," illustrated also by Behrendt's photographs. Hansen expertly explores the deeper implications of Erdoğan's mosque building boom stating: "Returning Turkey to the glories and origins of its Ottoman past and ending Atatürk’s secular constitution has been one of the primary goals of Recep Erdoğan throughout his long rule of Turkey since 2003, first as prime minister and now as president with growing executive powers. Thanks to the country’s economic boom, between 2010 to 2017, which was driven by cheap capital following the global financial crisis, the AKP, Erdogan`s party, has improved healthcare, urban infrastructure and prosperity, but on the other hand has made control of religious affairs a priority." Reading Erdogan’s Ambitions in Turkey’s New Mosques - The New York Times

For more information about this fascinating project see Behrendt's website at: Norman Behrendt

17 double-sided pages, individual pages 4.25" x 5.25" and when fully open 7' 1/4". 

                                                            

On the book's back cover there is a rather pointed quote from Turkey's Constitutional Preamble that flies in the face of what Erdoğan is doing on the ground.
 

Magali Attiogbé, Magreb (2021), Africa (2017) & Latin America (2019), Editions Amaterra, Lyon, France

Three very cool books for young audiences with all of them illustrated by Attiogbé's exquisite works. The combination of the size of the books, the heavier board book pages coupled with the beautiful artwork, and the smart choices of objects to illustrate from each cultures' histories, all wrapped up within a lean design, lifts these books into a unique and rarified aesthetic space all their own.

Attiogbé was born in Togo to a Togolese father and a French mother. At the age of three she moved to France and would later develop an interest in drawing at school that would eventually lead her to obtaining a DMA in illustration in 2002. Magali writes that "alongside my job as an illustrator, I practice sewing and singing, sometimes even both at the same time." For more of her works follow this link: Magali Attiogbé - IllustratorMagali Attiogbé | Illustrator

15 double-sided pages, each page 6.25" x 4.75", and when fully opened 5' 11.25"

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