Dogan Surek, Manhattan Bus Map (1996) and Bewerbungs unterlagen für wichtige aufgaben (2000)

Manhattan Bus Map, Printed Mayer, Essen, Germany 1996, ed. open

Three couples are depicted with different bus routes coming out of their mouths in a mash of phallic symbols and what appears to be heated discussions. I've been unable to find anything from Durek about his larger practice and this particular work, however he's been very active making artists' books and accordions for quite a while and there are a number of them spread out across this blog. This one leaves me curious about its meaning, and I'm still taking in its rather crude images and overpainting.

6 pages single-sided, individual pages 8.25" (h) x 5.75' (w), when fully open 2ft 10.5".

Bewerbungs unterlagen fur wichtige aufgaben (Application documents for important tasks), Odenthal, Germany, 2000, ed. 100.

An architecturally themed work with depictions of 4 rooms with notations for what is to take place in each part of the space. At the bottom of each page are titles/texts that read: 1. we build your dream home, 2. we are ready for 2100, 3. we offer innovative problems, 4. we are reflexively modern.

Perhaps I'm missing the 'humor' and the point to this work, in which on page 4 Surek has stamped the following "D. Surek Dipl.-ing. Architekt".

6 pages single-sided, individual pages 5.75" (h) x 4" (w) and when fully open 2ft.

Susanne Bürner, L'Isère and Le Travail, Manufactures d'histoire, Deux Ponts, Bresson, France, 2015, ed. 750.

Two accordions that take the format of the old fashioned folded postcard strips, and both explore the industrial and post-industrial landscape of the town of L'Isere that lies on the river of the same name, near Grenoble, France. The large factory in the town was a mine for processing the local stone. Interestingly, Isere was also the name of the French ship that delivered to the USA the 214 boxes inside of which was the Statue of Liberty.

This book project was sponsored by local organizations and historical groups interested in documenting the history of this previously important industrial area.

Both accordions: 12 double-sided pages, individual pages 3" (h) x 4" (w), and when fully open 4ft.

back cover

both accordions have the same reverse side with the L'Isere river in the middle

back cover

Molly Colleen O'Connell, Pantsless Pocket Pictionary, 2007

Not exactly sure what is happening here in this comic accordion, but the text begins with "dirty, filthy, sick hippy man cursed by a snakeboner into his current form: a 64-story tall feline guru, who begins the cult of the troubled teen...", and then its all a crazy roller-coaster from there — topless dancers, genital philanthropists, sex crazed gurus, ritual shaves, hypnotic prayers, panagiarions, pantlikas and the shartruse tribe all folded together in a cool combination of texts and quirky drawings, and printed in four colors.

10 pages, double-sided, individual pages 3.5" (h) x 2.5" (w) and when fully open 2ft 1".

back cover

Coco Gordon, SuperSkyWoman: Une Autre, 2003, ed. 90

A funky little accordion from this longtime intermedia artist and friend of Fluxus who was born in Genoa, Italy and made New York her home for most of her life. Gordon now resides in a home at the foothills of the Rockies in Lyons, Colorado and has long focussed on environmental and ecological concerns in her work and this book is now exception.

The text on the inside of the front cover explains that the genesis of this work was a celebration of Milwaukee-based artist, Roy Staab's 'Mobius' reed installation at the Mt. Tremblant Festival in Quebec in August, 2003 (the work can be seen in the final image of the accordion). 

Gordon adopted the 'SuperSkywoman' identity after reading Paul Gunn Allen's book 'Grandmothers of the Light' (1991) which is a collection of goddess stories from Native American culture and an exploration of the shared myths that guided female shamans in their understanding of the sacred. 

This artists' book is one from a collection of her books that are available at Printed Matter, New York. In a recent 2020 interview Gordon states that "I continue to empower myself as a woman who is aging to make deep cultural research visible, and to create an impact on the ethics of thought/behavior and on the mind-body-spirit integration of our modern structure".

14 pages, single-sided, individual pages 3.5" (h) x 5.5" (w), when fully open 7ft 4".

Roy Staab's work can be seen in the final photograph

back cover with Gordon's handmade paper

Yan Wai Yin (Winnie), So Good, So Guam, Dotdotdot Studio, Hong Kong, China, 2019, ed. 50

This is just a totally cool accordion, and in the statement below Yin explains how the book came about.

So Good, So Guam is a very long sketch that condenses a 11-day family trip to Guam in 2018. My family went there for my elder brother's wedding ceremony. During the trip, I was constantly stuck in the backseat. I sketched continuously what I've seen and places we went, sometimes the repeated elements are edited out. Spaces and surroundings are also oft distorted or twisted in order to build up the continuity. I didn't draw anything during the ceremony though.

Yin's sparse and sophisticated drawing style, coupled with a sharp eye for detail, perfectly complements the unusual dimensions of this accordion and in the process she creates a wonderful panoramic drawing that stretches unbroken throughout the length of the accordion.  The small size, and the intimacy required when looking at it only enhances its charm.

42 pages single-sided, individual pages 2.25" (h) x 5" (w), when fully open 17ft 6". 

The book has a wraparound cover

The 'introduction' to the book

back page of the accordion

Gabrielė Gervickaitė, 03, NoRoutine Book, Riga, Latvia, 2018, ed. 99.

A rather curious accordion that includes the following statement about what this Lithuanian artist is exploring in this book:

03 is my creative reflection on the soviet time, when I was born and lived for a while. It is my intention to understand deeper which power systems are functioning now and how soviet imagery still influences the times of today. It is important to me which aesthetics and ethics were used while imaging the human body in medical books and tutorials. Comparing medical illustration that were used in the past and those that are used now, I see forms of medical control. I analyze which ethical events and forms of power exist — what the norms used to be and which created now.

Folded into the pages of this accordion are a number of color offset prints depicting bodies being acted upon by a number of different corrective medical devices, counterposed with older drawings of other assorted medical instruments. 

Knowing that a main area of concern in Gervickaitė's work revolves around exploring images of disability, informed by her own personal experiences and surgeries, I can't help but interpret this work within this very personal context. While the larger issues she seeks to address provide the broader context for for this book, it is the body and its encounter with the world of medicine that takes center stage for me. And, anyone who has had encounters of this sort will readily identify with these rather curious medical procedures being applied to these hapless 'victims'. Ultimately the contents of this book are rather unsettling, and reinforced by the uniquely constructed pages and attached inserts.

10 pages, double-sided, with inserts. Individual pages 6.25" (h) x 6.25" (w), and fully open 5ft 8.75".

back cover