30 Americans (June 14 - Sept. 8, 2013), exhibition brochure, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, 2013

Cover image: Kehinde Wiley, Triple Portrait of Charles 1, 2007

The calendar of events for the exhibition.

A simple accordion folded brochure for this fascinating show of works by 30 African American artists at the Milwaukee Art Museum. A wonderful back cover for the show features Nick Cave's Soundsuit, 2008. Single page 9" x 4", width fully open 24".

Single page 9" x 4", width fully open 24".

Tom Clohosy Cole, Space Race, NoBrow Press, London, 2012

Front

Back 

Another excellent addition to NoBrow's accordion/concertina publication series. This visual history of the space race is beautifully illustrated by Tom Cole. While there's no conceptual or arty trickery to this book, it does use the panoramic features of the accordion to great advantage in telling this story. Individual pages 9.25" x5.5" and fully extended 4' 5". Here's the link to other Nobrow accordions: NoBrow Products

Dogan Surek, Perfect World, 1996.

Another quirky linocut accordion from Dogan Surek that's made up of 12 pages of apocalyptic imagery, and a final question connected to the last two images asking "What is your idea of "Make a Fresh Start," either photo 1 or 2.

Each page 5.75" x 4" fully open 4' long.

Egyptian postcard accordions (3), no dates

This plethora of images reminds me of a quote that I've used before in this blog and it's by Heda Kovaly from her obituary in the New York Times titled "Heda Kovaly Dies at 91: Wrote of Life Under Totalitarianism," Dec. 9, 2010, "I carry the past inside me like an accordion, like a book of picture postcards that people bring home as souvenirs from foreign cities, small and neat," she wrote in her memoir. "But all it takes is to lift one corner of the top card for an endless snake to escape, zigzag joined to zigzag, the sign of the viper, and instantly all the pictures line up before my eyes." 

Berlin: Popoutmap, Compass Maps. Ltd., UK, 2013

 

This map of Berlin is a curious combination of an old fashioned 'pop-up' book, coupled with what the publishers call 'a popoutmap.'  Either way it's a unique publication that utilizes 4 accordions working in tandem to pull off this clever map fold. Closed 3.75" x 5.5", unfolded width 20.5"

Accordion address books (2), 1990s-2003

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I found these two tiny accordion address books amongst the personal effects of my recently deceased parents-in-law, Leon Ishkanian and Alice Tchakedjian in Heliopolis, Egypt earlier this year. They both appear to be address books for specific holiday destinations: Sydney, Australia and California, USA. Individual pages for each are 3.75" x 2.5" with an opened length of 21.5" & 23" respectively. The back and front panels of both books are magnetized in order to keep the publication firmly closed. Two very interesting booklets in terms of their function, economy of size and the ease with which the relevant information can be scanned and retrieved. 

Here's a link to a blog about my trip to Cairo in January, as well as another trip that I had to take in February under very different, and tragic circumstances: Egyptian Dispatches

Fan, unknown author, no date

It's only just occurred to me that fans, in all their variety, should also be considered part of the accordion family.

Hartmut Andryczuk, Elektronikengel, 2003 & Bauplan Teilchenzoo, 2011, Redfox Press, Blue Fox Collection,' Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland

Electronikengel (front), 2003, edition of 50

Electronikengel (back)

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Bauplan Teilchenzoo (front), 2011, edition of 70. "Drawings and classification of elementary particles in physics." 

(publishers statement)

Bauplan Teilchenzoo (back)

These are two really exquisite screenprinted accordions by the German artist and publisher Hartmut Andryczuk (b. 1957). I can't pretend to understand exactly what the narrative is about in both of these books but there's a wonderful use of the panoramic qualitiy of the accordion format, with an intriguing mixture of visual poetry, text/image and a strong dose of lettrist inspired imagery. The screenprinted wooden covers give both books a substantial objectness and contrast nicely with the delicacy and lightness of the imagery in both of these double-sided  publications. 

Both books are 3' 2" opened full length with 10 pages each whose dimensions are 6' 1/4"  x 3' 3/4". These two books are a couple of the more compelling examples in Redfoxpress' 'Blue Fox Collection' of accordion publications. More info at: BLUE FOX COLLECTION

Richard Long, A Walk Past Standing Stones, Coracle Press for Anthony d'Offay, 1980

This is a really beautiful palm-sized accordion documenting a series of 9 standing stones that Long passed during one of his walk-as-art works in Cornwall, England. Either as documentation of an ephemeral activity, or simply as an artists' book, this small publication exudes a sense of intimacy through these mute signposts while a narrative of distance connects Long's walk and the origins of these stones.

For further information about Long's activities see his site at: richard long Individual page 3.5"(h) x 2 3/8"(w), extended 23.5".

Lewis Koch, Street vendor, Paris, France, 1991, from "Touchless Automatic Wonder." Madison: Borderland Books, 2009.

This street vendor is hawking an accordion postcard strip of scenic views of Paris, and this photograph can be found on Lewis Koch's website Touchless Automatic Wonder  A recent post on this blog has featured Koch's "8 Wisconsin Images" (1977) another accordion postcard strip.