#moveable book

It's not a manuscript, but this tunnel book depicting a promenade on the Champs-Élysées is still pretty cool (Rare Book Collection GV1525 .T86 1836). The place and publisher aren't known, and it was made no earlier than 1836. The video is by Chris Lippa, Digital Imaging Specialist at Penn Libraries.

This book is featured in the video loop for THE MOVEMENT OF BOOKS, an exhibit about all the ways that books move. You can watch the whole loop on YouTube, and if you're in Philadelphia before December 13 you can see the exhibit in person.

Link to Record 🔗:

The Movement of Books Video Loop 🔗:

The Movement of Books exhibit information 🔗:

#ArtsyFriday

“Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.” -- Mary Schmich

This joyful artists’ book by Lois Morrison gives vignettes of the narrator dancing through life—it just so happens to be a caterpillar. The caterpillar who is a corps de ballet is petite, measuring at 5 x 14 cm when all ten legs are in first position. The story is told on the body of a caterpillar with text printed with a Gocco printer and illustrations in ink and watercolor. Created in an edition of 25 around 1993/1994, our library copy is #24 and signed by the artist. While we may not be able to see this caterpillar grace the stage, Pointe Magazine continues to create a list of ballets from companies around the world streaming free online.  

--Laura  

ABC--3D, by book artist Marion Bataille, is a 3D alphabet with 26 letters that move and change before your eyes. ABC--3D is featured in the video loop for THE MOVEMENT OF BOOKS, an exhibit about all the ways that books move. The exhibit has closed, but you can still watch the whole loop on YouTube!

ABC--3D 🔗:

The Movement of Books Video Loop 🔗:

The Movement of Books exhibit information 🔗:

#ArtsyFartsyFriday

Some books take your breath away. The City Within by Natalie Draz, a moveable artists’ book, is one of those books. Created by Draz during an artist’s book residency at the Women’s Studio Workshop in 2016, this kinetic piece is housed in a simple wooden box; what first appears as an irregularly shaped booklet expands into a freestanding rib-cage structure juxtaposing letterpress and intaglio prints, a book object meant to be interacted with. As an artist hailing from Canada, Draz’s city is based on elements of downtown Montreal but for each new reader, an imaginary city forms. This video shows the artist interacting with one of the edition of 60:  

https://vimeo.com/172906878

Cities and maps are common inspirations in Natalie Draz’s work, as she “illustrates and papercuts cities that exist between reality and her own perspectives”. (Artists’ website)

--Laura  

A clever cat with a scary grin!

The “Pop-Up” Puss in-Boots, illustrations by C. Carey Cloud and Harold B. Lentz (Pleasure Books, 1934).  

Dean & Son's Moveable Book of The Royal Punch & Judy as Played Before the Queen at Windsor Castle & The Crystal Palace. London: Dean & Son, 11 Ludgate Hill, 1859. 

Old woman and her silver penny. [Dean's Movable Books series], 1858.

*52-180