Picasso Gaglione, A Accordion Book, self-published, Knoxville, 2022

My mate Picasso Gaglione has been sending me a bunch of his DIY accordions over the last year or so, and some are more wacky than others (search this blog!). But this one combines a photograph of us both from when I visited Picasso in his lair deep in the Knoxville countryside, and I'm assuming he must have been showing me the latest issue of his artists' periodical Stampzine. To participate in this cool rubber stamp assembling zine, see below for submissions info: Stamplandchicago.com - Posts | Facebook

And then with the flick of a wrist the attached accordion comes to life. Nice one, Picasso!

6 single-sided pages, size 1" x 1.5", and when unfolded 9".

Paul Éluard, Liberté, Flammarion, Paris, 1945/2012

This accordion is based on the poem of the same name by the well-known French Surrealist poet Paul Éluard (1895-1952). Written in 1942 in the dark days of the German occupation the poem consists of 22 quatrains. It's only in the final quatrain that Éluard plays his hand and specifically declares what he is writing about.

By the power of the word

I regain my life

I was born to know you

And to name you Liberté

One side of this French edition of the accordion reproduces the 22 quartrains that make up the poem, and the other side features cutouts at the top of the pages, along with information about the German occupation, an appreciation of Éluard as an 'engaged poet', and a recounting of how this resistance poem would become so well known. 

This accordion's rather unique design was conceived by Anouck Boisrobert and Louis Rigaud.

20 double-sided pages, page height is variable, width 7.5", when fully open 12ft 6".

back cover

Béatrice Coron, Excentric City, Editions des Grandes Personnes, Paris, 2014

In life as in cut-out paper, everything hangs together.

Quote by Coron on inside back cover

A really wonderful paper cut accordion from this well known and prodigious French artist who's published a large number of books featuring her cut paper works, as well as public art installations, animated films, and numerous solo & group exhibitions. Each page of this book is composed of narrative bands all telling different stories about the people and their varied activities in this 'excentric city' — all in the exquisite detail that Coron's work is known for.

Here's a good statement from Coron's website about her work and what's she trying to do with it:

"For the past 20 years, I have been exploring visual storytelling in artists' books, paper cutting and public art. Collecting memories from individuals and communities, I stage narrative allegories in silhouette to create a dialogue with the viewer in playful fantasies. 

These visual chronicles record archetypal stories that transcend time and space. My goal is to invite the public to pause and bring their own ideas finding personal interpretation to reclaim their imaginative powers.

My personal history fueled my curiosity for stories and questioned my perception of realities. I have been fascinated by the relation of people to their space and the sense of belonging. Using papercutting where everything is cut from a single piece of Tyvek, the profusion of individual stories make a coherent whole world." [https://www.beatricecoron.com/statement.html]

12 single sided pages, each 11" x 7.5" and when fully opened 7ft 6". Here's a link to another of Coron's works on this blog: accordion publications: Béatrice Coron, Excentric City, Editions des Grandes Personnes, Paris, 2014

back page

R. Clarke-Davis, Untitled, Brazil, 2022

front cover

R. Clarke-Davis has been on the road again, this time to Brazil during the run up to the elections there, which thankfully Lula won. More folds than usual in this unexpectedly rich and compact accordion & folded book.

Of varying size, one side 4 pages, each 4" x 5.5", and another side 3 pages of same size. And then unfolding the pages results in sheets of 8, 16 and 12 images respectively. Expect the unexpected with Clarke-Davis' puzzle books.

back of above sheet

 

Dieter Schwarz, Sol LeWitt, Folds & Rips: 1966-1980, Walther Konig, Germany, 2020 and Veronica Roberts, Sol LeWitt, Not to be sold for more than $100, Radius Books, Santa Fe, 2020

The deeper I get into the world of accordions the more fascinated I become with the idea and nature of the 'fold', and how it transforms a simple piece of paper into a multi-faceted, and complex object. So, I was excited to discover these two recently published books that explore for the first time an ongoing activity of Sol LeWitt's that consisted of folding, ripping and cutting out sections of printed matter, that he created between the years 1966-1980. There's definitely a continuity between these works and his better known serial works, but these have an intimacy not found in the latter. A lot of the works were circulated within his friendship circles and their apparent simplicity belies the larger issues and themes that they raise.  

LeWitt (1928-2007) described these works as "...drawings without drawing" with lines being replaced by the folds in the paper, and both books explore in different ways the variety of themes and issues that all intersect in this simplest of activities - folding, ripping and cutting of paper.

Here's a link to an excellent article by Megan Liberty from the Brooklyn Rail (Oct. 2020) in which she reviews both books and explores their different coverage of this remarkable and relatively unknown activity of this important conceptual and minimalist artist: Sol LeWitt: Not to Be Sold for More Than $100 and Sol LeWitt: Folds & Rips – The Brooklyn Rail

Chuck Close, Scribble Book: Self Portrait, Steidl & Little Steidl, Gottingham, Germany, 2013

Slipcase for the two accordions and pamphlet about the printing process

A really interesting set of three publications from Chuck Close in which he uses the panoramic feature of the accordion to illustrate the process of making a print. Of this work he remarked, "The idea for my scribble self-portrait goes back to an exquisite corpse drawing I made for a show at the Drawing Center in 1993. I wanted to find a way to make a full-color image that was built out of pieces, or in stages, as a print would be made. So I scribbled in colored pencils one color at a time, layering the colors on top of each other, and made a little self-portrait head for the top part of this drawing. I did the process colors first: magenta, then cyan, then yellow and then I would see what else it needed. This is like most of what I do: it's a question of always getting it closer and closer. I sneak up on what I want." [volume 3]

The publishers statement for the trade edition summarizes well the particulars of this publishing project, "Scribble Book is a self-portrait that emerges step-by-step out of the printing process, one plate and one color at a time. The viewer follows a series of nine individual plate proofs (volume 1) along with a corresponding series of nine progressive proofs (volume 2). By comparing the plate proofs against the progressives, the viewer may ascertain not only the effect as one color is added to create the final nine-color-portrait, but also the compositional decisions and careful modifications made by the artist at each stage of the project."

Both accordions: 8 single-sided pages, individually 13.25" x 11", and when extended 7' 4".

the final print is on the right

In volume three Chuck Close describes the printing process

Duncan Tonatiuh, Undocumented: A Worker's Fight, Abrams Books, 2018

front cover and slipcase

A beautifully drawn accordion done in Tonatiuh's unique Neo-Pre-Columbian style, this book tells the story of a group of undocumented workers and their, ultimately successful, organizing efforts at their place of work. This book was inspired by a Mixtec friend that Tonatiuh met at college in New York and it illustrates his journey from a small village in Mexico to his life as a busboy in New York City. This accordion is also a tribute to the long history of pre-Columbian codices that were all but destroyed by the Spanish invaders, and thus this book carries an undercurrent of resistance and, of a contemporary revival. 

Inspired by his research into Mixtec codices and artwork from the 15th century, Tonatiuh recounts that "I decided I was going to make a modern day codex of my friend's story. I've been drawing in a Pre-Columbian like style since."

Born in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, Tonatiuh has also spent time in the USA having studied at the Parsons School of Design and Eugene Lang College in New York City. He has also established an award winning career and has illustrated numerous books with a particular emphasis on books for children.

11 double-sided pages, individually 10.75" x 6.5" and when fully open 5' 11.5"

reverse side

back cover and slipcase

Karlsson Rixon (photographs) & Mara Lee (text), Nakenakt (Nude), Art and Theory Publishing, Stockholm, Sweden, 2018

One side of this accordion book is a compelling series of photographs that feature the photographer standing nude, with another nude woman draped in various positions around her body. Rixon remains impassive throughout the series, while her partner assumes a variety of uncomfortable looking poses as she clings onto the artists' body. The reverse side of the accordion is taken up with a text by Mara Lee, and since it's all in Swedish, its meaning is unavailable to me.

In a publisher's note about this quietly understated artists' book they write: "The photographs depicts a series of interactions between two bodies. They are portraits of the artist captured in a particular phase in life a phase of intense questioning and reflecting on the body in relation to queerness, trans identity and aging. We are confronted with performative moments of playfulness, intimacy, and deadly seriousness in which one body carries, balances, handles or is invaded by another. Perhaps the two together form a single organism in constant change, a body that doesn't adhere to prevailing notions of what a body should look like and how it should act..."

13 double-sided pages, individually 5.5" x 7.75" and when fully open 8' 4.75".

below is the cover of reverse side of book with Mara Lee's text