AN ACCORDION BOOK

​My first books were tiny…about 1-2 square inches.  Using leather for covers, stitching for bindings, and poetry for text, they met my intention to express visually the feelings I expressed less formally.  They were given away as sentimental gifts, eventually never to be seen again…like those who received them.  I should have taken photos…of the books! 
 
After I moved to Traverse City I met a “Renaissance Man”.  He was so named by media personalities who covered him and his “Deep Woods Press:  books with exquisite design and intaglio printing” (deepwoodspress.com).  Chad Pastotnik became a friend and co-steward with me of Michigan Nature Association’s “Cedar River Nature Sanctuary” which is located across the river from his home and studio. 
 
A book binding course offered by the Jordan River Arts Council (on Main Street in East Jordan, Michigan) taught by Chad was fascinating and engaging.  We created three different books using different binding techniques, Japanese binding techniques as I recall.  They were such works of art I never added text or images to them.  They are very much appreciated but still sit unused in my bookshelves until I find suitable contents for their interiors.
 
Fast forward to 2018 when the Bainbridge Artisans Resource Network (on Bainbridge Island, across the Puget Sound from Seattle) offered an “accordion book” class.  With all the resources of the Book Arts Studio (later to be combined with the Printing Studio) readily at hand, it was a pleasure to explore this advanced book creation challenge.  I created one accordion book without images or printing inside and began another. 
 
Both books were completed earlier this year, at my home in Michigan.  What motivated me to finish the books was a lingering, overdue promise of a birthday gift.  That renewed effort prompted me to check out the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center.  Wow…amazing place.  In April 2021 I took a “Book Blackouts as Meditation” class offered virtually by KBAC which I hope to replicate at the Grand Lake Library in the future.  In August, I took a “Diamond Fold Book” virtual class from KBAC.
 
In November 2021 the KBAC issued a “Call for Entries” for an exhibit in 2022 entitled “The Illustrated Accordion [Book]”.  I could not ignore this call and entered “Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore – Haiku”.  It is one of the two accordion books I began in Washington and was selected for the exhibit.  It features pages which collapse as do the pages of accordion books.  The pages also include the intriguing feature that they rotate.  On one side of each of the eight pages appears an image of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (that appear on various tourist publications) and on the opposite side of each page is one of eight haiku poems I wrote while backpacking in the National Lakeshore in 1997.
 
The KBAC photos of my book follow.  To see all the accordion books displayed during the February-April exhibit, go to:  https://kalbookarts.org/events/2022illustratedaccordion/.