Mark Grotjahn, 50 Kitchens: 2013-2018, Mark Grotjan Studio, 2022, ed. 1500

cover

                                     

                                                  accordion with title page

In 2018 Grotjahn had an exhibition at LACMA (Los Angeles) and premiered what he calls his "Butterfly" compositions, and this cool leporello reproduces, on a smaller scale, all the works in this fascinating series. I'll let the LACMA statement about the show describe the works: "Conceived as one work, 50 Kitchens takes its inspiration from a single composition (in black and cream-colored pencil) that Grotjahn made to meet the dimensional specifications of a wall in his kitchen. The more than 50 subsequent chromatic drawings explore pairs of radiating colors (like Tuscan Red and Chartreuse, or Grass Green and Canary Yellow) and together create a prismatic display. The works allude to artists interested in color, light, and optics, such as Wassily Kandinsky and the Op art painters of the 1960s, and also incorporate residual traces of earlier drawings that have been seamlessly integrated into the new works".

The reverse side of each page of the leporello has the title of the individual works and here's an example:

Untitled

(Muted Turquoise and Nectar Butterfly 49.02)

Here's a link to further information about Grotjahn: Mark Grotjahn « Artists « BLUM

55 double-sided pages, individual pages 5.75" x 3.25" and when unfolded 14ft 10.75"

back cover

 

R. Clarke-Davis, score: a commonplace book, 2023, and, a book of wonder: guiltily unburdened, 2023, both kiddy viddy press

 score: a commonplace book, 2023

This accordion reads like a Fluxus score with the dark embers scattered across the sands creating both visual and musical scores. The delicate paper the piece is printed on further enhances the sense of ephemerality, while the shifting horizons keep your eyes sweeping across this panorama.

9 single-sided pages, individually 5.25" x 3.75" and when fully open 2ft 11.75".

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 a book of wonder: guiltily unburdened, 2023

At the beginning of this work Clarke-Davis declares, "Avowed champion of film and all things analogue caught with numeric imaging device!," and on the next page declares that "...the imaging device resembled a leica...".  I'm assuming this means that instead of using a camera with traditional film he was now using a digital Leica camera. Either way, what follows is a photographic dérive of the outer suburbs from Manhatten interspersed with texts that suggest some kind of conspiracy on Clarke-Davis' part concluding with, "to hide his deception the images were to have been in black and white to further fool those with the authenticity of monochrome but now...the remaining time was spent between denial and justification...he refused to admit the pleasure had."

16 single-sided pages, individually 5.5" x 5.5", and when unfolded 7ft 4".

Éric Seydoux, Jissé, L'Atelier Éric Seydoux, Paris, 1988, ed. 200

front cover

Éric Seydoux (1946-2013) was a well known French artist and silkscreen printer who in his early years took courses in painting, drawing and lithography at the Art Students League of New York, and studied with the painter Dan Stacy during the time that his diplomat father was based in New York.

Returning to France he learnt screen printing and during his apprenticeship worked with well known artists such as Jean Dubuffet. By 1974 he had created his own workshop "L'Atelier" with Jack Pesant in Paris and they established an esteemed reputation and worked with a large number of contemporary artists publishing prints and books. By the 1990s Seydoux was collaborating with a roster of well known contemporary artists including, Sophie Clale, Louise Bourgeois, Ben, Paul Armand Gette, Nam June Paik and many others. 

In 2008 Seydoux was awarded the Order of Arts and Letters which recognizes "...eminent artists and writers, and people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world". In 2023 the National Library of France devoted an exhibition in tribute to Éric Seydoux, titled "L'Atelier de Éric Seydoux: imprimeur et éditeur en sérigraphie."

The information I have about Jissé is very slim and the only concrete facts I've managed to find about him is this quote, "Jissé was part of the scene of Parisian anarcho-punks of the 70s and 80s (Pacadis, Eudeline, Michel Gondry)." [FORMES UTILES]

However, Jissé's drawing skills and his creative imagination are well represented in this uniquely compelling and outsiderish story & imagery, all of which is presented in this beautifully produced silk screen print.

If anyone has more info about Jissé please leave information in the comments section below!

7 single-sided pages, individually 7" x 4.75", and when fully open 2ft 9.25"

inside the back cover

back cover

Sylvain Bureau, Nope, Le Dernier Cri, Marseille, France, 2023, ed. 150

photo from Le Dernier Cri's website

Another wild silkscreen publication from Le Dernier Cri. Sylvain Bureau is a Belgium born comics and print artist based in Liege. While this is not an accordion, I have included it here for its play with the single and double-folded pages interspersed throughout the publication. When these are unfolded and opened up they create all sorts of interesting combinations of images, both front and back. Further, I like the way the publication forces you to engage and interact with it!

16 pages, and individually 12" x 8."

Frances Law, Island Landforms, collagraph/collage, 2023, and Dark Sun, monoprint/collage, 2024

Two really gorgeous accordions from Frances Law, an artist who lives on the edge of the Scottish Highlands outside of Dundee. This location deeply informs her practice, of which she writes: 

"My current work explores the archaeological and mythic undercurrents of the landscape where I live and travel to in Scotland. Walking in the landscape and connecting to ancestral voices through maps, stories and language, I work with drawing, print-making and collage overlaying textures, symbols and universal imagery in an attempt to understand the spiritual relationship between people, the land and nature".  About her more recent work she writes "My focus has grown and evolved from the observation of the small intimate workings of nature into an exploration of our relationship to place, and the narratives deeply embodied within the landscape".

These two works really pulse with an awe, a dignity and a respect for the natural world, coupled with the fact that they are one-of-a-kind hand-made objects, which lends them a special intimacy upon encountering and handling them.

More of Law's work can be seen here: Home - Frances Law

Front Cover: Island Landforms, 2023

8 single-sided pages, individually 3" x 2.75", and when fully open 1ft 10"

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Front Cover: Dark Sun, 2024

8 single-sided pages, individually 6" x 2.75", and when fully open 1ft 10"

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.

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