Louise Odes Neaderland, Sadat's Journey (1982), Force Grim Force (1983), Shock and Awe (2003), A Mideast Kaleidoscope (2011), self-published, New York City, NY

The ISCA Quarterly, Vol. 4, #2, Winter 1985

Louise Odes Neaderland (1932-2022), who recently passed away, was an early experimenter and promoter of xerography as well as being a photographer, printmaker and book artist. She received her BFA from Bard College and her MFA from the University of Iowa in 1957. A recent exhibition at Printed Matter, New York, titled A Selection of Works by Louise Odes Neaderland and the International Society of Copier Artists featured the spectrum of her printed matter works and artists' books production, including a number of artists' accordion works from 1982 onwards.

For documentation of the Printed Matter show and catalogue: Selections from Louise Odes Neaderland - Printed Matter

I had previously known of Neaderland from her semi-assembling magazine, The International Society of Copier Artists (ISCA) see above, which she published quarterly between 1982-2003 [c. 84 issues!] and which featured a wide range of different kinds of works produced by artists using the xerographic process. 

Sadat's Journey, 1982

There's a Middle Eastern theme that runs through a number of Neaderland's books and this early one is dedicated to Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat (1918-1981) who most famously signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1978, which ultimately led to his assassination on October 6, 1982. Against a background from an article in the New York Times a day after his death we see repeated images of Sadat until the last frame in which the figure is empty and has been cut out, and is slipping off the page of history.

5 single-sided pages, each 8.5" x 9.5", and when unfolded 3ft 11.5"

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Force Grim Force: Violence is Legitimate Politics, 1983

Once again Neaderland repeats images from the media to comment upon political events in this case Peru, and she plays with the panorama of the accordion to bring together both a uniformed soldier with a gun and a peasant woman who are both walking in opposite directions. The despair in the subtitle of the book, "violence is legitimate politics" already points to who the victims will be in any encounter with the army.

10 single-sided pages, individually 10.75" x 8", and unfolded 6ft 8"

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Shock and Awe, 2003

"Shock and Awe" was what George Bush famously said he wanted to instill in the Iraqi army's leaders as he commenced the American invasion of Iraq known as 'Operation Iraqi Freedom' in 2003. This book takes a look at this historical moment from a variety of viewpoints with all of them forecasting more danger and harm, especially to the civilians as the cover suggests.

6 pages, individually 5" x 8.5", and unfolded 4ft 3"

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A Mideast Kaleidoscope, 2011

[subtitle: "Happy is the nation whose warrior sons these are." Menachem Begin 1982]

Of this accordion Neaderland writes:

 "A mideast kaleidoscope is based upon a photograph by Fadi Mitri and a portion of the Israeli Government statement announcing a cease fire in Lebanon on June 11th, 1982.

The book consists of 25 pages of the same image, with a hole punched in each of the four corners [ed note: in a previous edition]. A removable fastener may be moved to any one of the four corners, and the pages opened into a clockwise or counter clockwise to produce eight different configuration of the original image. The buzz saw blade shape speaks for itself about war."

12 single-sided pages, individually 6" x 6", and when unfolded 6ft