Artist Book LEAP : FROG

I received my grade for the "book 0", i.e. the first book assignment in Artists' Books II class last Tuesday. I had 94/100 points. That is higher than I expected because it was an experiment with a flip book that did not work well. The glue and the paper made one side thicker, as I knew it would, but the paper also curled more than I expected, and three days in the press did not flatten it. The curl made the flip action less than ideal. That is what I lost points on.

This is the flip book that failed.

I have been working my brain to the bone to create a book to fulfill assignment number two. I decided to use a photo series from Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion in an accordian book. I chose plate 168; two boys playing leapfrog with a side view and a facing view. I call it LEAP from the "front" of the accordian and FROG from the "back." The images were photocopied on manila drawing paper and carefully torn into small panels. I really like the soft images on the manila paper. Using double sided tape, the panels were afixed to the accordian pages. Except for the manila paper, I don't know what type or grade of paper I used. I rarely buy paper, so I use what bits and pieces I can find in my file drawers that I have collected over the years. The heavy black paper that I used for the covers was too thick. The folds gave me fits. I will not use that paper again for anything that needs precise folds. I like the results, eventhough it may not be within the assignment parameters.

This is the middle of the "front" before the covers were added.

The "back" view before the covers were added.

Another view.

The covers before attaching to the accordian.

The completed book, 4 3/4" by 3 1/8".

I am planning to use more of Muybridge's Animal Locomotion in future book arts projects. I discovered his work in the 1960s while brousing the library art and photpgraphy books at Long beach State College. Then Dover Publications printed a three volume set of all 781 plates in the 1970s. I bought a single condensed volume of 100 or so selected plates, because I couldn't afford to buy the three volumes. I used some of the action series in a few art projects and collages that I was playing with at the time. At one time I built a zoetrope out of posterboard which turned on a record player. I made strips of Muybridge photos to play in the zoetrope. Quite a fun experiment.