I was recently online looking at the new arrivals at Printed Matter, and the accordions below immediately caught my eye. All the books are from the French collective 3 Fois Par Jour. This is how they describe themselves on their website:
"3 FOIS PAR JOUR is a collective and a micro-publishing composed of: Idir Davaine, Clement Vuiliier, Sebastien Desplat and Christophe Gomes. 3 Fois Par Jour was founded with Aurelien Cantou in 2010, and was enriched for a time by the presence of Jeremie Fischer. For any information on our productions, write to us at: contact.3foisjarjour@gmail.com."
Also check out their extensive publishing activities on their website: ACTUALITÉS.
I'm going to let the works speak for themselves, and as you'll see they cover a lot of ground in terms of technique and subject matter, but they're all really smartly published and they feel comfortable in one's hands. Each of them reveals a powerful individual aesthetic, coupled with a high level of care in their design and printing.
The first three are the traditional accordion format, while the latter three are modified accordions in which the whole sheet is folded 8 times, then folded in half, and finally a cut is made down the center for 6 pages, and then folded into the traditional accordion format. This type of folding technique is known as an Eight-Section Centre Cut. I've also included photos of each of these 3 works unfolded.
Click on images for bigger pictures!
Measurements
The first set of three accordions: 14 single sided pages, individual 5.25" x 3.5", and when fully open 4ft 1".
The second set of three: 8 double sided pages, individual 2.75" x 8.25" and when fully opened 1ft 10".
Roxane Lumeret, La Veuve et L'Orphelinat
(The Widow and the Orphanage), 2022
Geoffroy Pithon, COSME, 2022
Lale Westvind, Flesh Movement, 2022
Idir Davaine, Fantomus, 2017
The accordion unfolded, revealing the cuts down the middle of the
printed sheet (see the following 2 works as well)
Yann Kebbi, P.O.V., 2017
Clement Vuillier, L'Oracle de Delft, 2017