Bill Burns, Amazing Curators, Collectors and Museums of the World, billburnsprojects.com, 2015

A smart accordion that mimicks the vacation booklets with their strips of souvenir postcards. Here the conceptual artist, Bill Burns uses this format to draw attention to something that he's really got his knickers-in-a-twist about and that's the incredible power and influence certain curators and collectors wield in the art world. He has even gone so far as to make little dolls of famous curators, and to name museums after famous curators and collectors. So, this arty adulation could be a savvy career move, but as to whether it achieves any results — well, this probably is better left to the art historians. On the other hand it could make him some enemies and that's a strategy that could also be useful to him as well. But first and foremost this work is a kind of conceptual joke and as with all conceptual jokes you never quite know whether you should take it seriously or just ignore it completely.

7 pages at 6.25" x 4", fully extended 2ft 4".

Laura El-Tantawy, Post-Script, RRB Publishing: Bristol, UK, 2016, ed. 750

"My Mother was hysterical.
'There are snipers on rooftops killing people.
They are targeting photographers. Don't come!'"

Fortunately for us Laura El-Tantawy did not take her mother's advice, and after a number of years living abroad working as a journalist and photographer, she felt compelled to go back 'home' to Egypt, to witness the revolution, to be there and participate in this incredible moment. On the books' inside covers she includes a very compelling text in which she details the journey home, what she saw and experienced in the streets, the brutality and the beauty, and what she found was profoundly moving and this publication is imbued with that charge. 

I too, know something of the incredible excitement that the revolution generated in the beginning, as myself and my Egyptian-born wife sat glued to the TV for weeks following each twist and turn as the revolution played itself out — truly remarkable and memorable days! 

El-Tantawy's expressionist photographic style works well with her writing style and the two blend perfectly in this little accordion that packs an oversized punch. However, I want the artist to have the final say about what she was felt she was doing in going out there, "I was working on my own, not representing any publication and without any influence outside my belief their story had to be told. "Who will hear our story? Who will get our dead children's rights back?" 

Double-sided, 16 pages at 6" x 4.25", extended 4ft 3". This book and others by El-Tantawy available here: LAURA EL-TANTAWY

Marion Deuchars, British Art Timeline, Tate Publishing: London, 2014

The Tate's really been kicking it out with the accordions recently, first was the "Tate Artist Timeline," (2006), and more recently the "The Works of Art London" (2015). I can't work out the date for this publication but assume its around 2015. On one side are artists' names from 1730 to 2000, and on the reverse, titles of works, by presumably, the artists on the other side. This is an interesting book visually, but kind of hopeless in terms of having this history laid out in any kind of accessible manner. 12 pages at 6.25" x 6.25" and extended 6" 3".

Frances Barry, Walks of Art London, Tate Publishing: London, 2015

A beautifully designed and very smart publication that has maps and info for 10 one-hour walks in central london that are organized around notable public artworks and other culturally significant landmarks. 12 pages, with each page 6.5" x 6.25" and fully extended 6ft 3".

Performing for the Camera, Tate Modern, London, UK, 18 Feb. - 12 June, 2016, exhibition brochure.

These sweet 7-page accordions were free handouts for this really fascinating exhibition and historical survey of the way we 'perform' in front of the camera.  7 pages, 5.75" x 4", fully extended 2ft 2".

Mark Hearld, Winter Feast, collage, Art Angles, UK, nd.

A fun greeting card by this UK illustrator who went to Glasgow School of Art and then to the Royal College of Art where he studied for an MA in Natural History Illustration. What I like about this rather commercialized greeting card format are the laser cuts made into the pages so that you are able to see right through the whole card/publication. On his Art Angles website Hearld has a number of other similar accordion formatted cards all of them featuring different countryside animals.

Single pages 5.75" x 8.25" fully extended 2ft .75"

Gwen Tomahawk, Apocalypse Mutants, Le Dernier Cri: Marsellie, 2015. [edition of 222]

This is just an incredible publication, its totally crazy, its unique, its a visual feast, in fact its not so much a book as a kind of explosion, spilling out all over the place. The scratchboard medium coupled with Tomahak's fine technical skills, blend powerfully together in the final screen print version. The whole package is perfect and totally outrageous too — Long Live Le Dernier Cri! Single page 8.25" x 5.5", extended with various sizes.

David Schoerner, ROYGBIV, Hassla, New York, 2015 [edition 300]

A really subtle accordion that pays homage to the LGBTQ rainbow flag. 10 pages at 4.75" (h) x 3.9" (w) and fully extended 3ft 3inches.