Sarah Nicholls, Elm Street (2021), Fish Creek (2019), Place Without Shadows (2020), & The Acclimatization Society (2018), Brain Washing from Phone Towers, New York, 2018-2021

A fascinating series of sharp and smart pamphlets that combine letter press (handset in metal type) and relief image (carved in wood or linoleum) with Nicholls describing recent pamphlets as "...primarily focused on urban landscapes and ecology, NYC history and neighborhoods, and how climate change will affect both human and non-human inhabitants of New York. They are distributed via the mail to a list of subscribers and friends, and represent an attempt to cultivate a 'reading private', an analog space in which to reflect, strategize, plan, mourn, and remember."

Consciously following in the steps of the early pamphleteers who had a long history of expressing their own opinions about matters of the day, often with a polemical social and political bent. Nicholls includes the following quote about pamphleteers by George Orwell in his introduction to his book British Pamphleteers (1948) at the top of her introduction to her works, and the spirit of these early publishers also mirrors the attitudes of today's zinesters:

"The pamphlet is a one-man show. One has complete freedom of expression, including, if one chooses the freedom to be scurrilous, abusive, and seditious; or, on the other hand, to be more detailed, serious and 'high-brow' than is ever possible in a newspaper or in most kinds of periodicals...Above all, the pamphlet does not have to follow any prescribed pattern. It can be in prose or in verse, it can consist largely of maps or statistics or quotations, it can take the form of a story, a fable, a letter, an essay, a dialogue, or a piece of 'reportage.' All that is required of it is that it shall be topical, polemical, and short."

With each entry below i'm including Nicholl's description of the works from her website: Elm Street - Brain Washing From Phone Towers

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Elm Street, 2021 [edition: 300]

Subject: History, Science, transportation

Elm Street is about: glaciers and what they leave behind; how trees communicate; roads that tell stories; driving as pleasure; landscaping as patriotism; and the advantages of underground fungi. Walking next to a high-traffic road is simultaneously pleasant and not. Join me on a walk down Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, NY.

8 double-sided pages, individually 8.5" x 5" and when unfolded 3ft 4".

cover

back cover
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Fresh Creek, 2019 [edition: 300]

Subject: Botany, climate change, History

The last pamphlet of 2019 is about: transportation networks, bicycling in the city, the Jamaica Bay Greenway, landfills, Robert Moses, how to get where you need to go, Starrett City and their seaside view, and finally, the Shirley Chisholm State Part out in East New York. It follows a bike ride I took last fall that I particularly enjoyed. I hope you enjoy the pamphlet as well.

11 pages, individually 8.75" x 5" and when unfolded 4ft 7inches.

cover

back cover

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Place Without Shadows, 2020 [edition: 250]

Subject: climate change, History

Place Without Shadows is the second in three pamphlets on mapmaking and the past, present and future of Brooklyn's coastline. Come with me on a trip to Coney Island Creek, where we will visit three parks, and ask ourselves some questions. What is a beach? Where is the terminal moraine? What is the commons? What is a barrier island when it is no longer an island? What does the beach in your mind look like? How do you own something that disappears under the tide?

5 double-sided folded pages, individually 2.5" - 4", and unfolded 1ft 7inches.

front cover

accordion with top leaf unfolded (front)

accordion with top leaf unfolded (back)

back cover

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The Acclimatization Society, 2020 [edition: 250]

Subject: Birds, science

The Acclimatization Society is a new limited edition pamphlet about birds that are local to New York City, their adaptations, and survival tactics. Focused on select native and invasive species in their new urban habitats: the rock pigeon, red-tailed hawk, sparrows, and European starlings, the text also explores speciation—the process by which species adapt to circumstances, develop genetic mutations, and in time, evolve into new species. The title of the pamphlet references the voluntary associations in the 19th and 20th centuries that encouraged the introduction of non-native species into locations worldwide.

6 double-sided pages, individually 9" x 4.25" and when unfolded 2ft 1inch.

front cover

back cover

Tetsunori Tawaraya, Midnight Explorations, Le Dernier Cri, Marseilles, France, 2023, ed. 150

cover

Measured by any criteria this is a totally wild & incredible silkscreen book, and it should come as no surprise that it sold out soon after its publication. While its not an accordion - what I want to concentrate on is the 4 page double-sided folded cover, which has certain accordion features, but really its more about the role of the fold in an artwork of this kind. Either way I had to feature this wonderful artists' book on this blog.

Tetsunori lives in Japan and in the late 90s he started drawing portraits of people and musicians in San Diego, CA. In 2002 he formed the Tokyo-based noise rock duo 2up. Apparently he's been on a roll ever since. For more information about Tetsunori and for purchasing his incredible prints, stickers and T shirts go to: tetsunori tawaraya

4 double-sided pages, individually 12" x 8" and when opened up 2ft 8"

folded cover and inside of the book

cover opened up and body of the book

the inside of the folded cover

the outside of the folded cover

Nigel Peake, Strip, Nigel Peakes and Nieves, Zurich, 2017

front cover

"Strip was drawn over a two week period in Paris, defined by the size of the room and the table. Made from observations of facades from some places and how they could be if side by side.” [Nigel Peake]

"It’s hard to summarise the work of artist, or as he has suggested it ‘drawer’, Nigel Peake because there is so much of it and it’s varied. Nigel, who grew up in Ballytrustan (County Down) and currently lives between there and Paris, originally studied architecture in Edinburgh for six years and in 2013 lived in Switzerland for a period to teach an architectural studio.  In the past 10 years he’s written and drawn 41 books, both for publishers Laurence King and Phaidon as well as under his own steam, covering cycling, bridges, cities, shapes, patterns, maps and much much more. His distinctive drawings have also appeared on work for Hermès, New York Times, FLOS, Tate, and the Royal Horticulture Society and he’s had exhibitions in New York, San Francisco, Paris, Shanghai and London. He once cycled from Edinburgh to Budapest and it’s probably fair to say that both architecture and cycling are a heavy presence in his extensive body of work." [Publishers statement]

A subtle and delicate work and I like that the title 'strip' resonates with the medium in which it's been realized — an accordion strip.

11 single-sided pages, individually 10" x 7.5" and when fully open 6ft 10.5inches.

back cover

Sharon Pettus, Gentleman, Choose Your Weapons, Autodidact artpress, St. Louis/Tuscon, 1995, ed. 150

                                                                                       photo credit: Printed Matter

cover without ribbons & miniature gun

I'm going to let Pettus' artist statement that accompanies this accordion serve as the introduction to this rather unique hand-stamped & collage work, with the issues & concerns she addresses even more prescient here in the United States, where the mass slaughter of innocent citizens continues unabated.

"A hand-stamped accordion fold book on the subject of gun control, specifically hand-guns and assault weapons. The book is held closed with red and black satin ribbons on which a miniature mixed-metal revolver is tied. The cross on panel fourteen consists of live uncanceled thirty-two cent American postage stamps, each placed upside down denoting the international symbol of distress."

As an addenda to the above here is a link to the USA's: Mass Shootings in 2023 | Gun Violence Archive. It makes horrific reading and it's going on right now. I myself am one of the unwitting members of a community of people all across this country, whose lives have been touched by mass shootings. Mine was quite early in the 'pandemic,' on the campus of the University of Iowa, Iowa City in 1991. [University of Iowa shooting - Wikipedia]

16 single-sided pages, individually 3.5" x 2.75 and when unfolded 3ft 10inches.

back cover

Christine Johanna Ulm, Weitergeben (Passing on), Galerie Kunsthaus, Mürz, Austria, 2021

front cover

Christine Ulm recently sent me this cool documentation of a show she had in 2021 at the Galerie Kunsthaus in Mürz, Austria. The note that Ulm sent accompanying this accordion describes the work:

Passing on

a game taking leave of the things

"The heritage of objects from my father's workshop and garden ended arranged in rooms of the gallery. The visitors were asked to take one or more of the things with them. At the end the rooms were nearly empty, only the green surrounding lines were left."

This accordion documents the gallery when it was full and later when only the outlines of the objects that had been taken were left. I really like the concept of the 'disappearing' exhibition and this accordion plays a key documentary role in preserving the 'then' and 'now' of this work, as well as its passage through the time period of the exhibition.

6 double-sided pages, individually 4" x 6", and when unfolded 3ft.

reverse side

back of accordion