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| Bob & Roberta Smith is an energetic Brit word artist and this is a hilarious accordion in which the shape of each US state is printed per page and underneath is printed its 'mis-identification' by people in London, UK. Printed in an edition of 100 and still available for $50 from Purgatory Pie Press-PPP Size: 2" (h) x 12' (l) |
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| At 2" wide and 12" tall this tiny accordion packs a big punch and reflects Finlay's interest in the Revolutionary period in France. This feisty and incorrigible concrete poet and Scotsman died in 2006 leaving behind one of the most unique gardens on that sceptered isle, Little Sparta. Little Sparta Trust website Finlay's works are still available at very reasonable prices (Evolution is £5/$8) at: Wild Hawthorn Press - Cards Index |
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Documentation of Nicolai's exhibition "Landschaft/Interieur," at the Galeri Jenotik, Berlin. June/July, 1996. This perforated strip of color photograhs document the plants and rocks that were featured in this exhibition. 3" (h) x 45" (l) |
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| Smart visual & concrete letterpress word play by these prolific publishing veterans using different regional words to describe the "...narrow passageways between buildings, the short-cuts between houses in a row." [From introduction] 6" (h) x 28" (l). |
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Two very different sides to this cool accordion, Gleichverstz by Peter Pommerer. 8" (h) x 5' (l) |
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| Brit 'walk' artist Robert Long's front cover, 2009. |
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| Very smart detournment of underground station names by Barbara Kruger, 2010. |
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A Patua scroll created by the West Bengalese artists, Moyna & Joydeb Chitrakar, about the effects of the 2004 tsunami. This is supposedly the first time one of these indigenous narrative graphic panels has been printed in the form of a book. Traditionally it would be a series of panels stitched together, from which the author/performer shared the pictures and traditional stories, as well as contemporary events. At 5'9" long and 14.5" wide this original accordion silkscreen print is a wonderful object, and a moving response to this horrific event.
This link shows the artists and investigates the tradition that these singing scrolls are a part of: Tsunami (a book by Tara Books) Copies of this book available on the internet for the astonishingly low price of $20. |
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I really know very little about this artist but this delicate accordion/map is a treat. The text in French and English says, "In the garden where I work, we cultivate images. Sometimes, weather permitting, after a shower of China ink or a storm of colours, drawings and paintings grow." 26" (h) x 19 1/2" (w) |
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A very long accordion recording the Coronation of Queen Victoria on June 28th, 1838. |
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Pre-Spanish codices were made from one long accordion folded strip of amatl paper. "The Codex is a colonial legal document dating to some 30 years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The text first establishes the pre-conquest founding of the town and its proud lineage of indigenous rulers. It then denounces the excessive tribute demands made by a series of Spanish encomenderos." [From exhibit label]
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| An exhibition of accordion publications that I curated for the Lawton Gallery, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. It was as a result of doing this show that I realized that very little had been written about this wonderful medium and that somehow it had been neglected in the histories of artists' book and artists' multiples. Thus, this blog is my attempt to correct this situation. Catalogue available at: PrintedMatter.org For documentation of show: DSC09198 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! |
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An awesomely beautiful two-sided accordion by Micah Lidberg, screenprinted onto untreated paper that gives the work a rich color and luster. The work depicts a utopian/dystopian prehistoric landscape in which assorted real and imagined animals frolic. 9.25"(h) x 50.5"(l) Available from Nobrow for $16. Nobrow also publishes a very cool artists' periodical with the same name, as well as a range of very sharp artists' books and other printed matter. In the summer of 2010 they moved to their new studio/gallery space in London's east end. Check them out: http://www.nobrow.net/  |
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Lucio (The Slasher) Fontana, applies his distinctive cut technique by punching holes through the gold paper pages of this artists' book. Both images MoMA, New York. 5.75" (h) x 70.75" (l) |
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There is a genre of artists' books that mimic and parody the style of Edward Ruscha's seminal accordion publication, Every Building on Sunset Strip (1966), and one of the more recent is Persistent Huts (2008) by the Canadian artist Derek Sullivan. Appropriating the size and accordion format of Every Building...it features sixteen black and white photographs of improvised huts or shelters, constructed by using six copies of the artist Martin Kippenberger's 1988 book Psychobuildings. Kippenberger's book featured photographs that he had taken of odd and eccentric architecture, and thus Sullivan's book is a an amusing homage to Ruscha's book and a play of contrasts between the traditional commercial architecture of Sunset Strip and the psycho-huts that Sullivan has constructed from Kippenbeger's book. Available for $15 from Printed Matter (http://printedmatter.org/) |
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A brochure announcing the availability of a set of ten serigraphs by Robert Indiana. Reproduced in greatly reduced scale, the accordion format creates a compelling printed matter gallery and mini-survey of some important works by Indiana from 1960-69. 5.5" (h) x 4'6" (l)
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This smart record of Buzz Spector's exhibition, Unpacking My Library: An Installation by Buzz Spector, (1995) at the San Diego State University Art Gallery, October 1-31, 1994, documents this artwork that was constructed from "all the books in the artist's library arranged in order of the height of the spine, from the tallest to the shortest." Measures 4" (h) and 11.5' (l).
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| Announcing the presentation of work created by Jun Kaneko at the Mission Clay Products in Pittsburg, Kansas between 2004 and 2007, on November 11th, from 10am - 2pm, at 714 South 20th Street, Omaha, Nebraska. Double-sided accordion with documentation of Kuneko's large ceramic works being installed in giant kiln. 6" (h) x 2' (l). |
