Concertina Books

Looking at other artists who have made concertina books for ideas…

How have they made it work? What paper have they used? What size format is the book? What makes it good?

Kevin Steele

http://www.greenchairpress.com/blog/?p=2329

Such an innovative design! Rather than following the conventional concertina format, this artist has chopped and rearranged the pages so that they view as a 3D landscape.

As a book, it's less exciting. It's just a scene and nothing happens. There isn't even any life suggested. It's not really something to 'read', just to look at. I guess it could be argued that my concept is similar, but I hope that there is at least a suggestion of SOMETHING existing in my narrative.

The shapes and textures are lovely but a little too flat and graphic for me - the hills are too smooth and not natural.

It looks like Steele has used a really thick stock to make the pages stand alone. The issue with heavy stock for a concertina is that it is then difficult to fold and needs to be pressed to stay flat when folded. 

Micah Lidberg

http://watmmagazine.com/micah-lidberg-rise-and-fall/

Jamie showed me this one in the studio. It's a concertina document of the rise and fall of the Dinosaurs. This format works really well with the subject and the scene has space to evolve throughout the time span.

The book is printed on both sides, meaning that it can be read in several different ways. The artist has also considered the content of every single page so that the book can be read page-by-page. This book is full of motion and has several narratives happening at the same time.

I'm impressed that there is no writing used at all, because I would be so tempted to explain the scene. The book doesn't need words! It explains itself.

The colours are a bit garish for me, but they are certainly bold and eye catching.