Car Window Accordion Shades, 2016

Nina Perkins, Untitled, 2 diamond fold accordions, 2015-16.

Two diamond fold accordions given to me on my birthday and christmas respectively by my daughter and created from paint samples. I guess its hard not to catch the accordion bug when your father is constantly going on about them and has a whole bunch layng around on his desk!

Both the 'pages' of these two are 1.75" square, and the top one is 4ft long and the bottom one 5'6". 

Erik T. Johnson (aka Eero), Kozmo-Knut, two color screen print, 2014

Here's a unique publication, a never ending accordion! I'm still confused exactly where the story begins but its something about an astronaut, a caveman and then things happen and roles get exchanged and then the story starts again. On the inside is a night sky with what looks like the trajectory of the rocket as it speeds across space. Included at the end of these images are 3 from the site that sells this accordion (Uncivilized Books : Kozmo-Knot by Eero) as my copy of the book did not come with this rather interesting packaging.

Each page 2.5" and extended 2' 9.75", circumference 5' 7.5".

Ik-Joong Kang, Starving Artists' Restaurant Guide, self-published, 1996

Ik-Joong Kang is a Korean born installation artist and a longtime resident of New York. After graduating from the Pratt Institute in 1988 he found a cheap studio in Chinatown and along with a bunch of other artists in the same building they created the Tuesday Lunch Club (TLC) that met once a week for 8 years for cheap meals. This booklet features 14 restaurants that the TLC discovered that provided the best meals for under $4. On the back of the image of each restaurant is a list that includes prices, hours, and a selection of the 'best' meals and their prices, along with a meal that Kang recommended. 

Kang sold the booklet at the Whitney Museum of Art and apparently they sold out almost immediately. Revised versions were published in 1998 and 2000. Interestingly hidden in the credits for the booklet is this one "This book is made possible by my wife's generous donation!" For an article about Kang and his book, and from which I have drawn for this text go to: Food&Drink - Ik-Joong Kang’s Chinatown Restaurant Guide

15 pages double-sided at 3" x 3" and open 3ft 9inches.

Jason Roy, Cop Attack, 2 color risograph print, Brooklyn, 2014

A funky double-sided accordion announcement card for Roy's one-person exhibition at Booklyn Artists Alliance, Brooklyn in 2014, titled "NO: A Masterless Universe".  Each of the 18 pages is .75" x .75" and open 13"

Katie Ries, Trash Book, 2016

I recently visited my friend Katie Ries and her husband Steve, to check out their brand new baby (hi George!). At some point during the visit Katie, who is a Professor of Art at St. Norbert College here in De Pere, Wisconsin, and who knows very well my interest in accordion books, handed me this little bundle. There's a real spontaneity to this book and I suspect she made it soon after she knew i was going to visit them and of course the twist in the tail is the medium from which the book has been made. Despite her advice on the last page to "...throw this away," i haven't as its a cool counterpoint to all the other accordions on this blog and i hope visitors to this blog will agree!

16 pages approximately 1.5" x 1.5" each and extended 25.5".

Richard Kostelanetz: Modulations, Assembling Press: New York, 1975 [ed. 300] and Extrapolate, Brooklyn-Des Moines Assembling Cookie: New York & Des Moines, 1975 [ed. 400].

27 pages at 3.25" x 3" opened at 6' 9"

These are two really fascinating publications by the long-time bookist, publisher, commentator and all round word person, Richard Kostelanetz. These two accordions are dedicated to the constructivist movement and are part of a series titled 'Constructivist Fictions.' Constructivism as an art movement arose in the post-revolutionary period in Russia and attempted to develop an artistic practice that served a social purpose in the building of a new communist culture. Key among the artists who were part of this movement were, Kazimir Malevich, Naum Gabo, Vladimir Tatlin and Antoine Pevsner. 

Below are some selected statements from Kostelanetz's "Constructivist Fictions" manifesto that is related to these two works (Richard Kostelanetz | Examples | Manifestoes).

  Constructivist fictions tend "to write themselves," once their initial premises are established; 
  the process by which they are made could be called "generative."

  They embody an intelligence that exists apart from their author, and this intelligence focuses 
  upon matters of detail; constructivist fictions are intelligent in ways their authors might not      be.

 Perhaps the most prominent current practitioner of constructivist fiction is Sol LeWitt (1928-   2007) - not in his three-dimensional objects but in such printed books as Arcs, Circles &     Grids (1972).

 He who feels draws; he who thinks patterns.

 One critical issue in constructivist fiction is versimilitude - the fidelity of every detail not to
 extrinsic reality, but to material that went before and material that follows, which is to say the
 fictional reality fabricated within the piece itself.

Each of these two works present themselves as one long serial abstract pattern that ever so slightly changes its design as it moves from the left to the right. There is an internal logic to the pieces that is only apparent when you view the sweep of the works and how the different patterns are generated. In this sense Kostelanetz is correct when he points out the importance of their 'generative' aspect, because once this design schema is set up the work just unrolls by itself. The format and the overall quality of unfolding that accordions' possess is beautifully suited to this kind of visual work as its pattern and shapes literally unfold in front of you in this format. These two accordions are unique compared to all of the others I have reviewed for this site, and they present a very different viewing experience in their almost organic unity and their visual 'overallness' as opposed to traditional publications that have a beginning an end and all the highs and lows of the in-between. These works by comparison seem like totally enclosed organic loops that, aside from their visual beauty, also draw attention to their method of construction and their very particular way of being in the world.

24 pages at 3.75" x 3.75" opened at 7' 6"

Gita Wolf & Joydeb Chitrakar, The Enduring Ark, Tara Books, India, 2nd printing 2013

This is a beautifully produced book that tells the story of Noah's ark in a series of sweeping images on both sides of the accordion, with the publisher stating that this book is the "Indian version of the Biblical tale". Either way its a smart treatment of an old tale woven together through the wonderful traditional folk art style of Bengal. The book comes with a slip cover. Individual pages 9.5" (h) x 6" (w), with a total of 34 pages and an open width of 17 feet.

reverse side of the book