Felipe Ehrenberg, Codex Aeroscriptus Ehrenbergensis, [2 versions] Nexus Press, Atlanta, 1990, ed. 40 & 500

I only recently discovered this really impressive accordion by the wonderful experimental Mexican artist Felipe Ehrenberg (1943-2017). This publication with its nine two-page stencil works, and pages of varying sizes, is really a mini-retrospective of his explorations in this medium — indeed the artist comments in the bilingual brochure accompanying the work, "For this book (which, like many other codices, should ideally be read like a detective novel) I have laid out my best beloved stencils. With these I seek to offer viewers various clues that you may unravel the wondrous and dramatic events surrounding the life of this artist, another witness to the end of a century." Further, he writes, "This work is also intended to serve as a musical score, perhaps to be composed by someone wishing to recreate the background music of our daily histories. The cutting of a paper stencil is like the soldering of a golden filligree." 

This work came out of a residency Ehrenberg completed at Atlanta's Nexus Press. The images for the works came from what he called his Visual Information Bank which was a box with all sorts of ephemera that he would dip into for images for his stencils. In contrast to the frenetic energy of the stencils, the inside of the publication has a bucolic and calm feeling that is mirrored in the original stencil work Ehrenberg created across the front pages of each book.

18 double-sided pages, individually 17" x 17"(variable), and when fully opened approximately 72".

At the bottom of this post I'm including some images of a non-accordion version of the publication that reproduces the same sequence of two-page stencils. Published in 1990, the same year as the accordion version, this publication is slightly smaller in size at 17" x 11" and printed in an edition of 500.

on the ends of the pages Ehrenberg has created an original stencil work 

(the palm tree & seascape)

the work's bilingual guide on the left with signature & edition number.

_____________________________________________________________

Sol LeWitt, Black Gouaches, Galerie Digital Arts and Les Nouvelles Editions Séguier, Paris, 1992, ed. 1000

This accordion by LeWitt (1928-2007) is not in his typical minimalist style with some strict ordering principle that defines how the finished piece unfolds. This work would seem to be in direct opposition to that — a long line of shapeless black blobs strewn together with no seemingly obvious intention or meaning. And even though I've searched hard I have found no writings about this work at all - which makes it even more mysterious to me. So, dear reader I leave it up to you to make sense of this rather elegant work, and if you come across any tasty tidbits please let me know!

15 double-sided pages, individually 14" x 11.5", and when fully extended 14ft 4.5"

accordion with slipcover

statement on inside of back cover

Jules Gabillet, Simon Moussiere, Erwan LeGueval and Valentin Fleuret, Untitled, Rennes, 2022

In one of my recent posts I posted documentation of a cool accordion exhibition that I co-curated with my French colleague Marie Boivent in the exhibition space of the Artists' Book collection at the University of Rennes. It was also an historic exhibition as it was the first exhibition in France of accordions, or as the French prefer 'leporellos'.

In the brief time that I was in Rennes I addressed Marie's students a couple of times and was pleased to see a good number of them at the opening, as well as their attendance at the one-day conference the following day. This leporello, which was gifted to me, is a collaboration between four student artists around the theme of Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" (1889) with texts on the reverse side that all amplify the theme of dark and light, and the swirling stars glistening in the sky above the village below. This is a fun publication with a well defined purpose that provides both a visual and textual response to this iconic painting.

6 double-sided pages, individually 3.75" x 2.75", and when unfolded with covers 1ft 10".

Editions Matière, La Method Bernadette (2008) and Laurence Lagier, Aoto (2018), Editions Matière, France

Two accordions from Editions Matière, the first one "La Method Bernadette" is an accordion publicity flier for a larger book about the fascinating story of how Editions Matière discovered a hoard of images created by a group of young women secretly consecrated to Christ, who in the early 1930s in the small French industrial town of Thaon-les-Vosges, developed a striking catechism method based on the use of black stencil drawings on white backgrounds in their fight to overcome "...the intellectual, moral, political and artistic depravity of the modern world."

Editions Matière describes Lagier's "aoto" this way: Aoto is the name of a district of Tokyo where Laurence Lagier briefly stayed. Lying on the paper, the landmarks she took there, which she remembers, mingle with the memories of an ancient scroll of the Tale of Genji  and are transformed into as many signs (milestones, points, scales, straight lines, crossings, etc.) which allow one to move flexibly, with grace, that is to say with freedom, from the street to the architecture, from the plan to perspective, from outside to inside, from paper to space, from composition of abstract modules to representation, to drawing, to urban landscape, to narrative perhaps… Aoto is a neighborhood, is a leporello. Aoto is a free game. Aoto is a game....

Please refer to a previous entry about Editions Matière and their involvement with the new French Abstract Formalist Comics (French Structural Comics) — of which Lagier would certainly seem to be a participant: [Nicolas Nadé, Ingredients, Editions Matière, 2016 and Sammy Stein, Sculpture, Editions Matière, 2016]

Editions Matière, La Method Bernadette, 2008

7 double-sided pages, individually 4.25" x 3.25 and unfolded 1ft 10.75"

reverse side

back cover

Laurence Lagier, aoto, 2018

7 double-sided pages, individually 6" x 4.5", and unfolded 2ft 7.5"

 

reverse side

back cover