New Book Art: The Catch

My goal: an inexpensive book using a structure I would be willing to make about forty times. The Woven Accordion is an easy eight-panel accordion with two long slits horizontally down the center, six cards woven through the slits. I would print the six cards from one linoleum block so that I could rotate the block and be able to have something different on the front and back. To highlight this, I would print in reddish purple on one side, purplish red on the other. And so I did.

The Woven Accordion works like a Jacob's Ladder, but, being made out of paper, it catches a bit and must be helped and worked by hand, more like a flexagon than the child's toy. Each card looks like a face card from a playing card deck, but instead of Queen both rightside up and upside down, she is paired with King on one card, Jack on another; Jack and King also share a card. The book fits in the palm of your hand.

The Catch has six letterpress printed words from handset type, and you can only see one set at a time before you have to manipulate the book. "Called one name / known by another" is that text. Other text within mentions how a wooden 2 x 4 is really 1 1/2 x 3 1/2, and this text is printed from the carved block and appears on the cards. The book measures 2 x 4 inches. The images on the cards are 1 1/2 x 3 1/2. Yeah, a little conceptual.




The Catch is now available at nevermindtheart on Etsy and will be at my table at the SF Zine Fest on September 4, 11am - 5pm in the County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park.

Instructions for the Woven Accordion are in Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms on page 135.

Comments