Research Guides: Book Arts Collection: Accordion

Accordion Structure

Photo of accordion book with square woodcut panels beside cloth covered clamshell enclosure.

The Garden

Cummins, Maureen. The Garden: A Meditation on Man & Nature. New York: Inanna Press, 1993.
N7433.4 .C86 G3 1993, Rare

Thirty hand-colored woodcuts in a hard cover accordion structure with removable spine to allow for display. This work shows the story of man's interaction with nature though referencing and reinterpreting historical illustrations.

A Line

Suyeon, Kim. A line. Oldham, England: Incline Press, 2009.
N7433.4 .K56 L56 2009, Rare

Woodcut and linocut combine to create this fantastical tale of a blind fisherman and his dog. The book can be read as a codex or stretched out as an accordion to follow the fisherman's line.

Accordion book displaying an illustration of the architecture of houses on stilts.

Riverine

White, Sara. Riverine. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Alluvium Press, 2016.
N7433.4 .W517 R58 2016, Rare

Six-panel accordion-folded book with sewn gatherings in valleys of 4 folds. Printed 8-color letterpress on handmade cotton/abaca paper. An artist's book and fragmented essay about a riparian landscape in New Orleans, LA called the 'batture.'

Bright red and green relief prints with poetry about summer across an open accordion book.

A Summer Garden

Lawson-Hall, Claire. A Summer Garden. Marcham: The Alembic Press, 1999.
SB457.6 .L39 S86 1999 MICRO, Rare

1-sheet book with multiple cuts and folded accordion-style. First and last leaves pasted down. Text and color illustrations on recto, large floral print on verso.

Soft colors and playful shapes across a gate-fold accordion book that references a staircase and piano keys..

Ode to a Grand Staircase (for Four Hands)

Chen, Julie and Barbara Tetenbaum. Ode to a Grand Staircase (for four hands). Berkeley, Calif.: Flying Fish Press, 2001.
N7433.4 .C436 O34 2001, Rare

Letterpress printed cut card panels attached to concertinas on both sides creating two spines. Pages are cut in layers to resemble a staircase and open from the center in the fashion of French doors. Inspired by the music of Erik Satie.

Gatefold accordion book showing several panels of the motion of a man running.

Extracts from Eve's diary; Extracts from Adam's diary

Twain, Mark. Extracts from Eve's diary; Extracts from Adam's diary. San Francisco : Pacific Editions, 2003.
PS1309 .A1 2003 OVER, Rare

"The images of a running man and woman created as pastel monotypes are based on the human motion studies by Eadweard Muybridge made in 1901. The separate print entitled "Adam & Eve Embracing" contains the handwriting of Livy Twain in a letter to Mark Twain written August 5, 1903. The concertina and French door structure with cut-out pages and collaged folded sheets has been designed by Charles Hobson..."--Colophon.

Sushi

Coron, Béatrice. Sushi. [New York] : Béatrice Coron, 1999.
N7433.4 .C657 S87 1999, Rare

Coron often works in single-color paper cut by hand, and as such, her editions are often very small. This book is an edition of 3. The accordion structure is backed with Unryu paper, which mimics traditional Japanese paper screens.

A collection of handmade paper samples in natural tones from yellow to brown.

Goodbye Bonita Lagoon: a papermaker's elegy

Thomas, Peter & Donna. Goodbye Bonita Lagoon: a papermaker's elegy. Santa Cruz : [publisher not identified], 2023.
N7433.4 .T545 G66 2023, Rare

In this flag book, each pleat in the accordion structure is used to highlights specific plant-made papers and information about the material. The accordion allows the samples to fan out so they can all be seen at the same time.

"Through this artwork, book artists Peter and Donna Thomas share a 40-year perspective of living at the edge of Bonita Lagoon [and they] tell their story through the textures of paper made from plants growing around the lagoon." -- Artist's description.