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

R. Clarke-Davis [3 works], Astoria Bouquets, Off Season, Baltimore Ferryland, kiddy viddy press, 2023

Three new works in Clarke-Davis' a book of wander series with the first two using his 'puzzle book' fold that gives extra flaps to two pages, and the third one is presented in a long oblong format with the images printed on a thin delicate paper and is the longest of his accordions that I've seen.  As is typical of Clarke-Davis' accordions there's an underlying theme of travel and place, with the photographs foregrounding different features of these locations — Astoria Bouquets is a good example.

note: click on images to enlarge

Astoria Bouquets, 2023

8 double-sided pages, individually 5.25" x 4.25" and when unfolded 1ft 5"

back cover

Off Season, 2023

8 double-sided pages, individually 5.25" x 4.25" and when unfolded 1ft 5"

back cover

Baltimore Ferryland, 2023

14 single-sided pages, individually 4" x 8.5" and unfolded 9ft 11"

back cover

Carla Shale, Leporello Ausmalbuch: ARCHITEKTUR, Knesebeck, Munich, 2016

cover with elastic fastener

I haven't come across one of these types of accordions for a while — a DIY accordion coloring book (Ausmalbuch)! Shale provides outline drawings of renowned architectural monuments from famous cities around the world, complete with instructions inside the cover requesting the reader/viewer/ artist to: 

"let your imagination run wild! 15 coloring pictures take you through the most beautiful metropolises in the world, from the ancient buildings in Rome to the modern architecture of New York and Beijing - all motifs together create a 3 meter long panoramic picture for your wall decoration."

32 single-sided pages, individually 5.75" x 3.75" and when unfolded 10ft

back cover

Gino de Dominicis, Lo Zodiaco, Nero Editions, Rome, 2018, photographs by Fausto Giaccone

This accordion is the documentation of an installation/performance, Lo Zodiaco that Dominicis (1947-1988) created at L'Attico gallery space in Rome between April 4 - 8th, 1970.  "The installation was a sort of tableau vivant, for five days. The signs of the zodiac, all represented by living human beings or animals with the exception of Pisces, were arranged in a semicircle and presented to the public, motionless, for the five days of the exhibition. The twelve figures of the horoscope thus divest themselves of their two-dimensionality of an illustrated almanac to acquire relief, depth, plasticity. All symbolic meaning is deliberately annulled in favour of an exact correspondence between word and image." (Alessandro Rugnone)

In his obituary in the Financial Times (June 1, 2010) Dominicis is described as someone who "...was famously disenchanted with the modern art world. Over the course of his 30-year career, he expressed contempt for critics, curators, catalogues, exhibitions and museums. He regularly refused to take part in shows, frequently destroyed his own work and loathed seeing it reproduced photographically." A further observation in this obit states, "Obsessed with a quest for immortality, he once called on scientists to halt all research and concentrate on finding a cure for death." 

13 single-sided pages, individually 5.5" x 8.25" and when unfolded 8ft 11.25"

back cover

Guy Schraenen, Axe magazine (publicity leporello), Belgium, 1975

front cover

Axe was an important artists' magazine that was edited by the Belgian artist & publisher Guy Schraenen (1941-2018) and came out in 3 issues between 1975-1976. Axe published artists who were working in the field of sound & visual poetry, as well as the work of other conceptually based artists. The periodical contained writings, postcards, cut-outs, fold-outs and each issue included a 17cm record.

This leporello was published at the time of the first issue of Axe in 1975 and would appear to serve as an advertisement for this issue as it features the names of artists published inside. A photograph from the Parisian bookstore (Didier Lecointre et Dominique Drouet) that is handling the artists' estate includes a photograph of the 3 issues of Axe that also includes this leporello (see below).

10 single-sided pages, individually 3" x 3", and when unfolded 2ft 9"

photo with the 3 issues of Axe and the publicity leporello

Evariste Richer, Substrat, Oct. 14, 2012 - January 6, 2013 Centre international d’art et du paysage, Ile de Vassivière, France, 2012

While visiting a show of Richer's conceptually-based sculptural works at the Center for Contemporary Art in Rennes in November, I found in their bookshop a sharply designed accordion catalogue for a show of his from 2012.

Richer's gallery, Meessen De Clercq in Belgium, describes his works as coming out of a "...scientific-exploratory mode..." and that "...he challenges our systems of measurement and our perceptual and spatial conventions".  Indeed, in surveying his works & installations created between 2003-2013 it's immediately apparent that this 'research' approach has been applied to all sorts of very different materials with fascinating and unexpected results.

The works that form the core of this portfolio are from a series titled Les Micachromes (2012) which consists of a series of 11 Cibrachrome photographs (172 x 123 cms). The photographs are enlargements of sheets of mica and the artist "Fascinated by the transparent quality of this rock...has used each sheet as a positive (so there is no actual film) and enlarged it onto Cibachrome paper (a technique threatened with extinction). Having played a significant role in the development of life on earth, mica is seen here in its 'intimacy'. It reveals a natural structure that recalls a formal analogy with gestural art, whether the oriental or Western variant." [selected works: 2002-2013, Meessen De Clercq]

10 single-sided pages, individually 9.25" x 6.75" and when unfolded 5ft 7.5"

leporello with accompanying catalogue

back cover