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Four vacation postcard accordions, two featuring buildings in Istanbul, another from Lisbon and the other Salamanca, Spain. This genre of accordion publication probably qualifies as one of the most ubiquitous uses of the accordion format. The strip of memento pictures to take home, or even better tearing the perforation and sending one on its way. |
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| Scenes of Kyoto in Spring, Japanese 17th century, ink, color washes, gold leaf on paper over wood frame. John H. Van Vleck Endowment Fund purchase, 1995. Chazen Museum, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA. Size, circa 4' x 12' |
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I have only just discovered the work of this wonderful New York-based Korean artist and illustrator. Roh was awarded the Creative Quarterly Silver Medal for this humorous book that "...documents a trip taken by a group of female sushi masters to a rotating restaurant where they proceed to teach Americans how to properly eat sushi. Today Is Sushi Day doubles as a guide to the uninitiated sushi eater and a companion to Roh’s other books Buying Lenin, Good Fortune, and All About The Public Bath. Each book includes 2 postcards." [Printed Matter text]. Beautiful in both its craft and drawings, there's something really refreshing about this artists' book. Individual pages 12" (h) x 9.5" (w), extended 8' long. For further images of this book and the two other accordion books below, check out Roh's website: Yo! Jungyeon Roh Here's an interesting interview with her: CO-OP blog | Jungyeon Roh |
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| All About the Public Bath, 2008 |
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| Buying Lenin, 2009 |
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| This rather interesting commemorative accordion is made up of individual miniature prints linked together by a ribbon of backing material. The publication was given as part of a gift of coins by Dr. Andrew Laurie Stangel to the Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin. On the right end of the publication is a case for the folded accordion, and separately there is a cardboard box for storage. Approximately 6ft long, and 2" tall. |
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A quirky, humorous and smart publication that comes as a double-sided boxed accordion with reproductions of all the 10 45rpm vinyl recordings that form the subjects of this artists' book on one side, and writings about each record on the reverse. Guthrie includes 4 levels of texts for all these records: recording information, a summary of historical events for each year, musings about the record, its authors/singers and history, and a more general discursive section that reflects on the larger cultural moment of these pop records.
Here's how Andrew Guthrie summarizes this project on the back of the box, "10 random 45s. The Lesser Knowns 1960-1969. Chart toppers and those that missed. An alternative take on the historical record. What's left over after you sweep-up. What you come across in record bins in obscure parts of any country after everything else has been purchased. A personal take on the 1960s, as exemplified by what one has at hand: ten 45s, one for each year of the 1960s chosen for the corner they occupied and now occupy in Pop history. American and British records of no specific style or character that nevertheless tells us something about a time and a place."
Andrew Guthrie is an artist, curator and a part time lecturer at the Hong Kong Art School and with this book he's produced a really fascinating hybrid publication that combines social/political history, personal reflection, and conjecture all spun together in a pomo remix. Priced at $13 this is a must buy for anyone interested in alternative histories of music, offbeat artists' books and aficionados of accordion publications! Individual pages 8.25" x 8.25", extended 6' 10.5"
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Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) was a Scottish concrete and visual poet, artist, sculptor, landscape artist, and irrepressible carmudgeon. Through his Wild Hawthorn Press, he published numerous printed works with a variety of collaborators and many of them are still available for purchase (Wild Hawthorn Press). This work includes a text about death by Abraham a Santa Clara, the ecclesiastical name of the German Augustinian monk, Johann Ulrich Megerle (1644-1709). Known for his eloquence as a preacher and "...the impartial severity with which he lashed the follies of all classes of society and the court in particular," (Wikipedia:3/14/12). This description of Megerle resonates with Finlay's own personality and I have no doubt this was one of the attractions of this fellow traveller across the centuries. Finlay's work was deeply involved with Neo-classical themes and the more time I spend with his work the richer and more complex his ouevre becomes. This simple and visually powerful piece morphs an agrarian tool associated with nature into a Nazi symbol for a culture of death, both of which complement Megerle's text on the work of the Reaper as well as a pointed contemporary critique that spares neither the lowly nor the mighty. Single pages 8" (h) x 2 7/8" (w), expanded 8" x 11 4/8"
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| This delightful double-sided accordion (leporello) zine contemplates the big and small questions as it traverses the world from Cuba, to Shanghai and ends up in Washington State...Wong's light touch, whimsical illustrations and minimal narrative beautifully matches this publishing format. Photocopied in different colors, page size is 8.5" (h) and 5.25" (w) and 31.5" extended. Check out her other publications and artwork at: Chelsea Wong |
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 A smart accordion by this versatile visual artist with a BFA in printmaking from the California College of Art, Oakland. Size: 8" x 26" Check out this conversation in San Francisco's Art Practical, between Wong and the two books artists, Jaye Fishel and Nance O'Banion. Bay Area Book Arts | by Chelsea Wong |
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| Kou Vang's photoworks combined with a text by Tou Saiko Lee creates a moving elegy to Hmong identity and history, as well as the complex balancing act of maintaining one's own culture within the larger context of American culture. Individual pages: 10" x 3.5," extends to 14". Kou Vang has a blog with more information about her and her art, as well as the fascinating life stories of 17 other Hmong women: Kou Vang « Kou Vang |
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| A big 'thank you' to my friend Marc Fischer for giving me a copy of this delightful children's book! I'm assuming that there must be a whole genre of accordion children's books but I haven't been coming across them. In a unique collage style, Eric Carle, illustrates the story of assorted animals following a tail until they find its owner - not sure whether this is a happy ending book or something rather more sinister. Individual pages 6 1/2" x 8 1/4", extended its width is 8' 3". |
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An accordion brochure for an exhibition of the former-DDR,
Berlin-based artist, Robert Rehfeldt (1931-1993). Operating outside of East
Germany's official culture, Rehfeldt developed alternative means and sites for
realizing his idea of 'contart,' a
word that he created that is a hybrid of 'contact' and 'art.' Contart, was his strategy to foster everybody's
creativity which then would lead to "...new artistic forms and
non-established means of communication. It gives help to the formation of
creative groups and other initiatives in the field of art." (Rehfeldt,
1978). Sadly, the process of reunification was a difficult time for Rehfeldt
and his wife, they lost their studio to a dentist and were forced into a
nomadic existence. One friend
wrote, "Quite some networkers blame your untimely death on the social
harshness that you had to experience after the end of socialist Germany. They claim,
not without reason, that it literally broke your heart." (Netmail, 1994)
What will live on is Rehfeldt's works and actions all of
which propagate his desire for the future in which "the creative contact
replaces the severe idea of competition among artists by a friendly one...[so that it] can be
the basis of a big collective of art workers for the realisation of human aims
and ideals." (Rehfeldt, 1978) Cordelia Marten in a 2007 presentation situates Rehfeldt within the larger cultural politics of the period in her article: Conceptual Art in East Germany - Robert Rehfeldt and his network of artists.pdf
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