Patrick Lombe, Placenta Popeye, Marseille: Le Dernier Cri, 2007 [200 copies, with CD]

Another wild double-sided accordion from the French publishing house Le Dernier Cri. Patrick Lombe is a Marseille based artist and musician. This 5 color silk screened book is comprised of 3 accordions of varying sizes. There's a CD that comes with this book but I was unable to get it to play as it had paint and various glues all over it! However, from an internet search Lombe's music sounds like its totally experimental and probably would be classified as 'musique concrete', that is composed of experimental sounds and put through various different electronic boxes.

Two of the larger accordions are 10 pages, with each page 8.25" (h) and 6" (w) and extended a total length of 30". 

Front cover (right) and back cover (left)

Sarah Robbins, The King is Dead, 2012

A 2 layer screen printed double-sided accordion. The title is an homage to The Decemberists' album of the same name. There is also some evidence that this title itself may be an homage to The Smiths 1986 album the Queen is Dead. The album reached #1 on the US Billboard 200 in February, 2011. [credits wikipedia]

I think of this 'book' as more of a long print that's been folded into the accordion style. The print stretches out to reveal a panoramic image that is at once sophisticated, humorous and naive. On the back there is sparse imagery but what is there spells out the title of the work coupled with a caricature of a king. All in all a curiously appealing piece with an extra tactile element being the good paper its printed on.

Sixteen pages, each 8.5" (h) by 6" (w), extended 4'.

Sury, Caroline, Sex Tonic Avec Animaux, Collection Sandwich #1, Marseille: Le Dernier Cri, 1996 (150 copies)

Another incomparable publication by the French artist/illustrator Caroline Sury who with her partner Pakito Bolino run the cool publishing house Le Dernier Cri. This publication is part of that project and from a series of accordion publications they did under the 'Sandwich' series. In this double-sided accordion Sury illustrates a slurry of taboo imagery and sexual activity in which animals, for the most part, serve as voyeurs of the unfolding activities. For more information about Le Dernier Cri: lederniecri.org/

Fourteen double-sided pages at 4 5/8" (h) by 4 6/8" (w), fully open 2' 9 2/8".

Mateo, Jose Manuel & Javier Martinez Pedro, Migrant, New York: Abrams, 2011

A fascinating double-sided accordion, one side in English and the other in Spanish. Conceived as a children's book the subject is the migrant's journey from Mexico to the USA and the perils of this journey north on the network of Mexican trains, colloquially known as La Bestia (The Beast). Written from the perspective of a young Mexican boy who describes his life in the village and the gradual depopulation of his community as the inhabitants head north in search of work leaving only women and children behind. Since his mother is forbidden by their landowner to work their patch of land and unable to find decent work locally she and her son and daughter make the journey north. The boy describes the journey and the dangers they face and their successful arrival in Los Angeles where they are confronted with a host of new difficulties, but at least they have work.

The combination of the text (Jose Manuel Mateo) and the wonderful drawings (Javier Martinez Pedro) really brings alive the myriad issues related to why Mexicans, and children in particular, are forced to undertake this perilous journey North. Interestingly, Javier Martinez Pedro at one time illegally migrated to the USA and thus his drawings are imbued with the first hand knowledge of the trip that hundreds of thousands of Mexicans and others have taken. This book should be required reading for children and adults alike!

Page size: 6.25" (h) x 12.5" (w), fully extended 5' 2.5".  Price very reasonably at $17.95. 

detail

A strip of checkers/draughts pieces

A perforated accordion strip of game pieces for checkers/draughts. Individual piece 1" (h) x 1 7/8" (w), fully opened 13".

Tais Koshino, Umbeagle, Brasil, 2013

A fun little accordion that I picked up at the New York Art Book Fair this September at MoMA PS1 in New York. I have no information about the artist, but Koshino seems to be a Brasilian illustrator with a fun and light touch, and a cute drawing on the back in a horizontal format. 

Update: A reader of this blog, Tais Koshino, came up with some interesting extra information about this book, "...i tried to make a word game with umbeagle (UM means one in portuguese and beagle, the dog) and umbigo, that in portuguese means belly button. it was printed in 2013 with a risograph printer in Brasilia, Brazil". Thanks Tais!

 Doubled-sided, 8 pgs. at 3" (h) 1.75" (w), open at 1ft 3.5".

reverse side

Pakito Bolino and Nixel Junk, Pixel Junk Destructoid, Le Dernier Cri: Marseille, France, 20120 [200 copies]

Front Cover

A scrappy and bold collaboration between these two artists that perfectly fits the iconoclastic aesthetic of its publisher and artists' collective, Le Dernier Cri. This book consists of two 4 page double-sided accordions that meet in the book's spine with different sections of each accordion given to each artist. 16 pages, 8.5 (w) 8.5" (h), width open 5ft 8".

Back and Front cover

At the books' spine the two accordions meet up in their folded positions.

Yoko Naito, Silence of Breath, 2009?

A curious accordion with its moody photographs and wild animals, and the slightly sentimental poem at the end. Yoko Naito was born in Japan and currently lives in New York. Individual pages 3.5" x 3". Fully extended its 14 pages measure 3.5" x 42".

Finger Tips, Apple Inc., 2009

Single page 3 3/8" x 2", extended 3 3/8" x 6".

Edgar Arceneaux, 107th Street Watts, Frankfurt: Revolver Archiv fur Aktuelle Kunst, 2003, ed. 1000

The review below is an excellent summary of this publication and since it's credited to Umbrella magazine, I can only assume that Umbrella's editor, Judith Hoffberg (1934-2009) wrote the piece. Either way it gives me the opportunity to remember a fervent supporter of artists' book who recently passed away.  

Edgar Arceneaux, 107th Street Watts with essays by Charles Gaines, Lynell George and Vincent Johnson (English); 15 x 20 cm, 48 pp., 50 ill., leporello and text booklet in fold-out box (Special edition available. See Editions.) ISBN 3-934823-82-3

“107th Street, Watts by Edgar Arceneaux is a conceptual photographic project shot in the dense historic battleground of Watts, California. “Part of the trajectory of the project and the ideas that have led to its genesis and ultimately its fulfillment, include a desire to produce a number of strong visual counter arcs to a relentlessly mediated social space, as well as a desire to ignite a critique of the narrow histories of Los Angeles’ provocative past. Another aspect of the project, that of expanding the traditional subjects of Southern California artistic practices was to photograph an area of the world both known and also viewed globally through a singular event in its history.” In this case it was Watts and the Watts riot of 1965 and this is an excerpt from the essay, Watts at Sunset” by Vincent Johnson for this book project. Simulating the format of mapping the “Sunset Strip” of 1966 by Ed Ruscha, this bookwork formally mimics the Ruscha book by shooting every building on 107th Street (the location of the historic Watts Towers) in a 7-foot photomontage. The book actually has only one page folded into an accordion, allowing the reader to open and pull it completely out for an undisturbed viewing from end to end. Printed in an edition of 1000, the bookwork is enclosed in a small rectangular box and includes 3 essays by writer Lynell George of the Los Angelees Times and artist/writers Charles Gaines and Vincent Johnson in a separate accordion book. The essays act to contextualize the photographs and also attempt to bridge the voice of the virtual non-existence of any writing about Watts not focused on the riots of 1965. The book seems to want to broad the discourse around the photographic history of Los Angles and become a historical record of Watts. In this, it succeeds admirably.” (Umbrella, 12/2003) 

The panoramic photowork book is 18 pages each of them 6" x 7.5" (H) and fully extended its 9 feet. The text-based accordion book is 20 pages, 6" x 7.5" (H) and fully extended 10 feet.

The two books that make up the publication, one is the photographic panorama and the other features assorted texts related to the work and the location.

The accompanying accordion with texts by various authors