Anish Kapoor, Sketchbook, Editions Dilecta, Paris, 2011

This is just an astonishing accordion!  Kapoor sequences a wonderful series of moody and dark gouaches that he made in 2011. The pairings, the page sizes and the quality paper, combined with the rhythms he sets up, are just beautiful and really take full advantage of the panoramic quality of the accordion format.

In an introduction to the book by Marie-Laure Bernadac, she quotes Kapoor on what's he trying to do in these drawings, "the main subject of the drawings is the subconscious...What i'm trying to do is paint the interior, my interior." 

21 pages, single-sided, individual pages 10.75" (h) x 8" (w) and when fully opened 14ft.

Etel Adnan, Leporellos, Galerie Lelong & Co., January 23 - March 7, 2020, Paris.

This book about the leporellos of Etel Adnan (1925-2021), a Lebanese-born artist and writer, is a wonderful contribution to the minuscule literature on accordions and of artists' who work in this format. An opening essay by Adnan "The Unfolding of an Artists' Book," sets the scene of her first encounter with an artist working in this folding book form. She relates the story of her meeting in The Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco's North Beach, with a former sailor who had picked up a heroin habit as well as inkpot, brushes and scrolls, while in China. He would sit for long periods of time studying and drawing the people in the cafe in his folding (accordion) books. 

Adnan was struck by the format, especially when he gave her one he was working on, for her to finish. Since this time in the early 1960s, Adnan has continued to work with, and refine her use of this fascinating format.  As a former philosophy student and then professor, she also writes thoughtfully and eloquently about this format, as well as exploring all the ramifications of the very particular visual/literary dance that she sees taking place across the panorama of an accordion. 

The book also has really great illustrations of Adnan's works, and at the end there's a really interesting article (in French only) by Anne Moeglin-Delcroix "PLI SUR PLI: sur quelques leporellos d'artistes," which surveys important accordion books in addition to exploring different facets of the artists' accordion book. 

I've just come across a really interesting interview with Adnan from 2021 with her and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the artistic director at the Serpentine gallery in London, in which she says the following about creating her leporellos: "The leporello is a journey. When you start a leporello, it's like getting on a boat - you have a journey in front of you and that's what's beautiful. In the middle of a leporello you are afraid of making a mistake because you would have to throw everything awayl. You have to invest in the work and you have to keep a tension. It's like composing music, [maintaining] a rhythm - that's the work of a leporello, not to fall into a hole, to continue like when you are surfing, to hold the wave."

Here's a link to an obituary in the New York Times after Adnan's passing in 2021: Etel Adnan, Lebanese American Author and Artist, Dies at 96 - The New York Times

Nikki de Saint Phalle, Harry and Me 1950-1960: The Family Years, Benteli Publishers, Switzerland, 2006

I've always enjoyed Niki de Saint Phalle's funky aesthetic, in fact her accordion book 'My Love' (1971) was the publication that made me look further at accordion books and it directly inspired me to start this blog - so I owe a lot to this formidable artist. This book is not an accordion but a very frank autobiographical account of the years 1950-60, and of her marriage to Harry Mathews. The interesting fact about this book is that she includes Mathews' comments and memories, and he offers his own perspective on events and incidents that happened during their lives together.

However, interspersed across this book are three fold-out sections and one is an accordion fold!  As you can see Phalle addresses the pressing social and political issues of this decade in a very direct manner, with the atomic cloud hovering over the whole piece. I think this is a powerful work and just had to include it in this blog.

Follow this link to check out 'My Love' (1971) in this blog: 
https://accordionpublications.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-love-niki-de-saint-phalle-malmo.html

Erika Rier, Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll, Portland, nd

A fun accordion with smart illustrations by Erika. This book is based on the 'nonsense' poem by Lewis Carroll, with the first stanza written and printed in 1855, but it was not until his book Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There was published, did the final version see the light of day in 1871. This lively accordion book really brings this curious poem to life!

Check out Erika's website for a number of her other accordions as well as her other excellent illustrated works, https://www.erikarier.com/

Single page 5" (h) x 4.25" (w), double-sided with 16 pages in total, and when fully opened it's 2' 10". 

 front

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back of book

Natasha Zahn Pristas, Alphabet Alaska, Kodiak Island, Alaska, 2018

A fun kid's book of collages depicting animals and nature, from this artist who lives on Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. It's not hard to see how profoundly Natasha's been inspired by her environment, and the spirit of this place is deeply interwoven into these works and this book. For more about Natasha and her work go to:
https://www.natashazahnpristas.com/natasha.html

Individual pages 5" (h) x 5" (w), 22 pages single-sided, and when fully opened 10'.

back of book

Souvenir of Niagara Fall, Canada, nd

A sweet little album of sepia toned photographs of the Niagara Falls. The word 'souvenir' has its roots in the 18th century with the French word souvenir meaning 'remember,' which is from the Latin word subvenire meaning to 'occur to the mind.'

9 pages, single-sided, individual pages 3.5" (h) x 6.5 (w) and when fully opened 3' 2.5".

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Jean Dubuffet: The Last Two Years, The Pace Gallery, New York, 2012

A really handsome catalogue for an exhibition of Dubuffet's at The Pace Gallery, in 2012, featuring works from his last two years. An informative introductory essay by Harmony Murphy leads the way and then his last works are spread out with a nice rhythm on both sides of this accordion. The cardboard covers give this publication a really nice physicality and touch. All of this combines to give these kind of scratchy works, a space in which they can breathe, and do their work on the viewer.

See below for another catalogue from Pace of Dubuffet's works.

Page dimensions 11" (h) x 9.5" (w), 16 pages, and when fully opened 6ft 4".

front

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back cover

Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), Dubuffet: Excursions in no man's space, Pace, New York, 2013

This is an exhibition catalogue that accompanied a mini-survey of late drawings by this well-known French artist who was both a painter and a sculptor. Influenced by what we now call 'Outsider Art,' Dubuffet used non-traditional materials in his works in a desire for a more direct experience, and it was this search that led him to be influenced by artists' working well outside the mainstream art world. In turn, he created the term 'Art Brut' (Raw Art) for these artists and their art, and subsequently he amassed a large collection of such work which is now located in the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, Switzerland. For people in, or near Chicago, a large outdoor sculpture of Dubuffet's can be found in the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago.  

10 pages, double-sided, individual pages 8"(h) x 5.5"(w) and when open 5' 11.5".

Sam Rictus, La Loge de fer (The Iron Lodge), Le Dernier Cri, Marseille, France, 2019, ed. 200

Strictly speaking this is not really an accordion, however in 2 sections when the folded pages are opened up and they join together, it does create an accordion effect. Sam Rictus is the nom de plume of Samuel Guillet who was born in France in 1980. Introduced to the silkscreen process by the folks art Le Dernier Cri, he's since then produced a number of books and prints in his trademark dense style, all depicting fantastic creatures.  Of his work he says: 

"My fascination for the fantastic and the monstrous was expressed by the drawing which allowed me since childhood, to invent my own creatures and mythologies.

My drawings are a series in which the different characters form the bestiary of a dark imaginary world, composed of tribal constructions and architectures, from the depths of the ages, populated by camouflaged fauna, inserted in landscapes whose elements: stone, earth, plant seem to be in fusion. This magma exudes a bustling vitality despite the frozen line of the image and its impenetrable appearance at first glance.

The spectator gradually enters this world of folklore and cults archaic, and distinguishes its composition step by step, as if he were exploring an unknown, wild world…

My subject joins the technique, which is also abundant: I draw improvisation, starting my image at various places on the sheet, without knowing where I'm going, the shapes emerging as the drawn areas meet".

16 double-sided screen printed pages, individual pages measure 11.75"(h) x 9.25"(w), and when four pages are opened together the width is 3ft 1".