Joe Sacco, The Great War, New York: Norton & Co., 2013

Sacco's sparse drawing style allows him to render the first 24 hours of this incredibly bloody battle in exquisite and moving detail. The panoromic image moves through a day & a night, and it charts the troop's deployment through to trench warfare and the resulting slaughter that made the Somme so horrific and instantly memorable. Each page 8" (h) x 11" (w), with all 25 pages opened: 22' 11" wide. Comes with booklet that includes annotations to the image, as well as statement by the artist.

Roger Camp, Butterflies in Flight, New York: Thames and Hudson, 2002

Roger Camp combines the traditional Japanese 'orihorn' format of an accordion book with modern photographic images of butterflies in flight to create this book which is in dialogue with an earlier woodblock printed book titled One Thousand Kinds of
Butterflies (1904) by Kanzaka Sekka.

La Jicara, #6, 2009, Taller Lenateros, Chiapas, Mexico [2nd edition]

I got really lucky last week and found a copy of this most incredibly beautiful handmade periodical, and it's so special in every sense of the word. La Jicara (The Gourd) is published by indigenous Maya women in San Cristobal, Chiapas, to promote Mayan culture, and its accordion format embodies both pride, and resistance as it's modeled on the codices created by the women's Maya ancestors that were all but destroyed by the Conquistadors and priests during the Spanish conquest. This periodical is only one of a number of publications produced by Taller Lenateros (The Woodlander's Workshop) which was founded in 1975 by an expatriate American, Ambar Past to promote Amerindian culture. There's an earlier issue if you scroll down on this blog, but the cover for this particular issue is spectacular. Individual pages 8.75" (h) x 5.5" (w), 59 pages and opened up its 12' 2.5" in length. 

The full range of their beautiful artists' books, prints and other publications can be seen, and purchased at: http://www.tallerlenateros.com/ingles/index_ing.php

Front cover and section

Front opened up

Back opened up

Section of the back

Front and back covers

Robert Filliou, Standard-Book/Livre-Etalon, ed. Dieter Roth, Stuttgart, 1982

A little masterpiece by Filliou that I only recently discovered, and published by Dieter Roth as well!

Diane Arbus, The Libraries, Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, 2004

This rather interesting hard cover panoramic accordion is presented in a slip case and documents some of the contents of Diane Arbus' library as presented in the international museum retrospective Diane Arbus Revelations which was organized by the SF Museum of Modern Art in 2003. Underneath each book and selected photographs is a description of the individual item.

This is a nice use of the accordion format to document a particularly linear strcuture with the added appeal of sneaking a look at what kinds of books & photographs this distinguished photographer felt worthy of collecting and preserving. Tucked into the back cover is a booklet that contains a detailed bibliography of all the books in this publication.

Thirty-one pages at 7" x 11" each, with an extended width of 28' 5" 

Partial view of the book

The opened book is titled "Perspective of Nudes, Bill Brandt."

The caption for the center photograph is "Allan Arbus 8 x 10 film test on Diane Arbus, circa 1949."

Daisuke Ichiba & Pakito Bolino, Kuso-Tare Badakito, La Dernier Cri, Marseilles, ed. 200, 2012

Another incredible publication from La Dernier Cri, this one is a collaboration between the Japanese artist Daisuke Ichiba and Dernier Cri co-founder Pakito Bolino. Ichiba's spindly drawings of young girls in all sorts of weird situations is a mash-up of manga with his own very individual style and is known as "Ero-Guru." Pakito's much bolder but no less uncompromising work serves as an interesting foil to Ichiba's drawing style. The book has a bunch of crazy accordion fold-outs just sprouting all over the place. Single page 8.25" x 6" For more books and prints from Dernier Cri go to: la dernier cri

Daisuke Ichiba pages.

Pakito Bolino pages.

Front and back of book and extended pages spread out.

Peter Strehle, Lost Stories, Edition Taube, Stuttgart, 2013, ed. 100.

A cool boxed set of 10 accordions of varying lengths created by Strehle from Polaroids that he purchased from Ebay and then reinscribed them with his own 'story' or thematic context. It's fascinating how little suggestion we need as viewers in order to read the 'stories' that Strehle sets up with his titles. This was one of the accordions I found from my recent visit to the New York Art Book fair. If you're into artists' books of all stripes I strongly suggest a visit to next year's fair. Dimensions for individual pages 4.25" x 3.5." Check out his site at: Edition Taube

"Candy Andy made the deal"

"Do you remember Terry?"

"Did she notice Something?"

"You know what to do..."

"Johnny"

"What happened to Samantha?"

"George Fly"

"Last Night" 

"Mrs. O'Doglas"

Remi, L'art de La Guerre, Le Dernier Cri, Marseilles, 2011, ed. 200

Another superb publication from La Dernier Cri. No words needed to describe what is happening here. Double-sided, 8 individual pages at 1.75" x 6" and fully extended 4'.