Mary Bergs, Further Notes on Place and Space, Collaged Papers and Stones, Edgewood College Gallery, Edgewood College, Madison, 2022

A sharp installation in which Bergs' large-scale accordion collage sits perfectly within the elongated display cases leading to the Edgewood College Gallery. Using found materials and "self-made" materials, Bergs creates ephemeral looking collage works that come from a careful awareness of her surroundings and from an appreciation of the beauty to be found in our everyday lives. Below is the artist's statement that accompanies this piece:

"This accordion fold book and accompanying stones are a further investigation into my interest in memory, visual perception and our experience of place. When I first looked at the display case, I immediately thought of a horizon line: a story and these related lines developed into a book project. A horizon line introduces the idea of landscape, memories of places and a sensate experience of place. Images of landscape are often idealized versions of reality that we accept as truth, never questioning how these images impact our perception of our own experience. I am interested in creating situations where non-specific ideas merge, a place where two or more ideas come together to form a relationship, a possibility, a new association. My work explores the linguistic properties of materials and objects, and things that can function as language and be read by the viewer. I invite careful looking at forms and materials where spatial arrangement and changes in texture generate new meanings. I investigate the place where language and objects coincide."

A longtime resident of Minneapolis, Bergs now lives somewhere "in the middle" of Wisconsin with her husband at the edge of the village of Benton.

Annette Messager, Les Uterus Fleurissent (The Uterus Flower), Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, 2017, ed. 100

A really powerful double-sided accordion by this well-known French artist in which she insists on her autonomy when it comes to her own desires and pleasure. The following quote is taken from the description of the book on her gallery's website: 

"Annette Messager has created numerous artist books over the past 40 years. This new leporello-style artist book offers a partial response to the issue that matters of the female body and a concern that women's desire —and especially their ability to openly express it—continues to be met with resistance. Indeed isn't this desire—women's desire—precisely the desire to be able to, as females, manifest, affirm, and express themselves?"

For an excellent review by Joseph Nechvatal of a 2016 show Messager had at the Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris, he addresses how she "...deploys an iconography of anti-patriarchal anger rooted in the female body," see:
https://hyperallergic.com/344804/a-uterus-flipping-the-bird-and-other-images-of-feminist-exasperation/

20 pages, double-sided, each page 3.25"(h) and 2"(w), when opened 2ft 2".

front

back

Christopher Saclolo, Books Arts: Accordion Bindings, UCF Libraries, Books Arts & Typography Collection, University of Central Florida, video, 2022

I recently came across this smart video in which Saclolo looks at four different accordion books, and discusses their varied formal features. This is a great introduction to some of the unique aspects of the accordion book and I'm looking forward to more! Follow the link below for the 6 minute video.

Saclolo is the Book Conservator in the Special Collections & University Archives, John C. Hitt Library, University of Central Florida.

Book Arts: Accordion Books on Vimeo

Rohima Chitrakar and V. Geetha, A Village is a Busy Place!, Tara Books, India, 2019

Another beautiful folded scroll in the Bengal Patua painting style from the folks at Tara Books. From an elevated vantage point the viewer can survey the Santha people, who reside in the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand, as they go about daily life in the village. On the back of each fold are short texts that draw our attention to the variety of activities taking place and encouraging us to look closer at what's being depicted in the scroll. The themes for these inquiries are: A Village Feast, A Day in the Village, Common Space, In the Evening, Work and Summertime. As you open up the book it becomes an unfolding journey through all that is taking place in this aerial view of village life, wonderfully rendered in the inimitable Patua style by V. Geetha.

8 pages double-sided, each page 8" x 14.25" and when fully opened 5ft 4"

                 

              

back cover

Oliver Jeffers, An Alphabet Fold-out A-Z, Harper Collins, London, 2017

slipcase and book

A beautifully designed and illustrated alphabet story book by this Irish artist who has been lauded for his artistic skill, and whose books have been translated into over fifty languages and sold over 14 million copies. Aside from his numerous artistic accomplishments he was also awarded an MBE from Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth for Special Services to the Arts.

12 pages, double-sided, individually 5.5" by 5.5", and when fully opened 5ft 6".

slipcase and back cover

Isol (Marisol Misenta), It's Useful to Have a Duck, Groundbook Books/House of Anansi Press, Toronto, 2007

the book with its slipcase

I'm not going to say anything about this fun kid's book by this well known award-winning Argentinean illustrator and pop singer, as i don't want to give away the book's punchline!

16 double-sided pages, individually 6.25" by 6" and when fully open 8ft.

the back of the book with slipcase

Antoine d'Agata, New York 1989-93, Andre Freres Editions, Marseille, France, 2016

A very powerful accordion from this well-known French photographer comprised of mostly black and white images, with five color works added to the mix. The book opens with a photo of his beloved grandfather with a bunch of his mates, and then on the second page is half a portrait of his mother's face joined by the page's fold with another half portrait of his father overleaf, all of which creates a third person, namely d'Agata himself. From there the book descends into some dark spaces with images of drug taking accompanied by a deep sense of despair and loneliness.

In a booklet that comes with this accordion d'Agata writes about his family, and his mother and father's deep connections to Sicily. His teenage years were troubled and marked by a variety of different jobs along with copious drug taking. D'Agata sums up this period, "I listened to the Sex Pistols and threw cocktails Molotov in supermarkets and enjoyed fights the cops, the rich kids, the people demonstrating in the streets, the shopkeepers... everybody I guess."

This accordion is the first in a planned series of twelve, with one commentator noting that d'Agata has specifically chosen the accordion format because he "...rejected the idea of having them in a classic format forgotten on a shelf. Instead, an accordion-folded format allows for the book to be displayed on a table or a wall."

24 single-sided pages, individually 7" x 5.25", and when fully open 10ft 6".

back cover with numbering indicating this is the first in a series of twelve