I was excited to learn that June 14th marked the opening of a new exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute called “Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn” at the National Museum of American History.

I have been following the progress of the exhibition for a few months through an informative blog they launched to showcase various books and backstage stories.

Stephen Van Dyk, the show curator, carefully considered the 1200+ collection of pop-up and movable books in the Smithsonian Libraries before settling on 53 prime examples of paper engineering.  The dizzying beauty of the volvelles in Peter Apian’s Astronomicum Ceaesareum start off a timeline of movables that include works from pop-up masters like Meggendorfer, Nister, Dean, Lentz and Kubasta.  The current crop of masterful pop-up artists are also on display so look out for titles from Robert Sabuda, Matthew Reinhart, David Carter and others.

Not only are works from Bruce Foster and Chuck Fisher in the exhibition but they make another appearance in the running video that describes much of the pop-up making process.  You can take a look at one of the videos here on Youtube.

“Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn” will be at the National Museum of American History until Fall 2011 so you have plenty of time to arrange that must-see trip to D.C.

~Kyle

Last month I was lucky enough to swing through BookExpoAmerica at the Javits Center in New York City.  I always love to attend this book fair each year to get a sense of what new pop-up books will be released and what the dozens of publishers and printers have to show off.  Sadly, my tour of the floor was cut short after a great chat with paper engineer Gene Vosough.  I had to hustle off to meet with Ellen Rubin, thepopuplady, Matthew Reinhart, and Bulgarian paper engineer, Anton Radevsky.  I was very excited to meet with Anton as I have marveled at his paper engineering feats as he tackled subjects like Space Craft, Architecture or the Wild West.

Anton Radevsky was visiting Manhattan for the first time and was eager to meet some fellow paper engineers and talk shop while he showed us his latest tour de force pop-up book Voyage to the Heart of Matter. His book is a collaboration with CERN in Switzerland to share the story of the Atlas experiment and the Large Hadron Collider.

Voyage to the Heart of Matter is an ambitious pop-up book about an ambitious scientific project to discover the beginning of the universe.  This complex experiment is broken down into bite size sections to help kids (and adults) understand what it takes to make protons travel near the speed of light.  The book has just been released in the UK but the 2^nd edition is set to be in U.S. bookstores in the next two months, so I have to keep waiting for my own copy.

~Kyle

As I was trawling through the interwebs this week I came across a very cute virtual pop-up book.  I’m always excited when my different interests align so it was a delightful bonus to find that the virtual pop-up book was created as a promotional for one of my favorite Korean directors, Chan-Wook Park.  I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK was released in 2006 and has yet to have make it’s way to the U.S. or Netflix, but I have my fingers crossed.  You can learn more about the film at IMDB and Wikipedia.

The virtual pop-up book is quirky creation from the Korean design firm D.O.E.S. which stands for “dreams of electric sheep” and references Phillip K. Dick’s seminal work that spawned one of my favorite movies, Bladerunner.  Based on the preview of their 2010 reel it seems they are no strangers to the virtual pop-up book and have created another version of the pop-up book for LG.  You can also check out their fun cut paper animation for the LG Cyon Lollipop and don’t forget to see the “making film” section for a behind the scenes look at all the hard work they put in.

Getting back to the charming virtual pop-up book, the viewer can explore three chapters and interact with the characters on each of the spreads in fun ways.  While they cheated on the physics of the constructions, it works well with the surreal nature of the project.  The pop-up book closes with an appendix that promises three make-your-own masks based on the movie, but I was disheartened to find that the links were no longer available.  Guess I will have to make my own bunny mask.  Now all that is left is for me track down a copy of the movie this weekend because the pop-up promo sure sold me.

~Kyle

I just learned of a new pop-up exhibit that opened last week in Andalucia, Spain.  More specifically at the Teatro Auditorio in the Southern resort town of Roquetas de Mar.  The movable books in the show come from the extensive collection of Ana Maria Ortega Palacios and her husband Alvaro Gutierrez Banos.

I have had the good fortune to meet with these lovely collectors on past occasions and know that this exhibition will be tastefully presented with many rare books selected from their 1,700 title holdings.  I learned the show is divided in two sections.  One side of the hall represents a general history of movable books dating back hundreds of years with impressive examples of Meggendorfers, Nisters, Kubasta, Wehr and other masters of the Golden Age of Pop-ups.  As the exhibition continues, viewers can peer into twelve cases to see different book formats and explosive mechanism used by various paper engineers.

The exhibit is slated to run from April through June, which gives me time to save up for a trip to Spain.

~Kyle

P.S. Spanish articles covering the opening can be found here and here.

This weekend is the New York Antiquarian Book Fair!  I completely lost track of time and forgot that the book fair was coming so soon to the Park Avenue Armory.  I have been fortunate enough to attend the last few years and always get excited to see some amazing books from the past.

As you can imagine my interests tend toward all things movable so I make sure to make the rounds of my favorite independent booksellers.  It is so exciting to actual hold some of the rare Meggendorfer and Kubasta titles found at Aleph-bets Books and Joann Reisler’s booth.  Or drool over the glass cases of rare antiquities from Justin G. Shiller.  I always find wonderful treasures at Chez Les Libraires Associes where the very pleasant Jacques Desse and Thibaut Brunessaux are on hand to share the latest pop-ups out of Paris alongside rare European titles.  And the trip would not be complete without checking out the bookcases of Bromer Booksellers and visiting with Peter at the massive Books of Wonder booth.

Below is the essential info for the Book Fair but you can also get a full list of exhibitors and learn more about the 50^th Anniversary of the Antiquarian Book Show here.

Location: The Park Avenue Armory at 643 Park Avenue and 67th Street in New York.

Dates: April  9 – 11, 2010 (With a Thursday preview)

Hours: Friday noon – 8pm, Saturday noon – 7pm and Sunday noon – 5pm.

Admission: $20/per day, $30/two-day pass & $45/three-day pass (Catalog included.)

~Kyle

This coming Monday marks the opening of a new pop-up exhibit at the Cincinnati Library.  The Wonderful World of Pop-Ups: From the Collection of Carolyn S. Hughes will be on view in the Main Library’s Cincinnati Room from April 5 through June 27.  Carolyn Hughes is a passionate book lover and pop-up collector that I have had the pleasant of meeting with over the years.   She contacted me to let me know that she selected my book, Castle, to be one of pop-ups presented at the library.  Carolyn went on to say, “There will be 115 books & things… It will be in the rare book department in beautiful cases that have alarms in them. How sweet! I have 570+ books, so it was really hard to select which would be used. I tried to have variety of subject matter, artists, & of course the all important paper engineer.”

One of her favorite paper engineers is Bruce Foster, who is no stranger to this blog.  In fact Carolyn goes so far to claim, “I’m the self appointed President of the Bruce Foster Fan Club, Ohio Chapter!”  So it only seems fitting that Bruce will be joining in the opening festivities and give a presentation on his amazing work next Sunday, April 11 at 2:30pm.  More info can be found here.

Additional details of both events can be found on the first two pages of the library newsletter.

I had a chance to get a sneak peek at the exhibition list and found it a well balanced show.  Go check it out for yourself, you won’t be disappointed!

~Kyle

I had the privilege to attend the opening reception to a wonderful artist book exhibit last night and the Grolier Club.  The inventive book artist, Shawn Sheehy invited me to join him at the event where we met up with the always cheery, Ed Hutchins and Ellen Rubin, the popuplady.  The gallery was packed wall to wall with artists, book collectors and book lovers but I was able to squeeze off one photo of Sheehy next to his work.

“Beyond the Text: Artists’ Books from the Collection of Robert J. Ruben,” includes over 60 examples of accordion books, codices, scrolls, box books, pop-ups and tunnel books, in every variety of mixed media. Some are by artists of international renown, others by new artists forging their creative paths. Some of the books have previously known texts, others new texts or no texts at all, and the subject matter ranges from political, argumentative, ironic, lyrical, to tragic.

In speaking with the very pleasant Dr. Robert J. Ruben, I learned that this show represents about ten percent of his notable collection, which he has been amassing since he picked up his first artist book in 1952. Ruben has two intellectual centers to his life: medicine and books. A leader in the medical field of Otolaryngology, Ruben has also been an ardent student and collector of artists’ books for twenty-five years, and a similar exhibition of his artists’ books, “Beyond the Text”, was held at Adelphi University a few years ago.

This exhibition is accompanied by an impressive catalog with beautiful full-page color illustrations of each book. The catalog is a joint effort of the art historian, Yvonne Korshak, PhD and the collector, Robert Ruben, MD and is available for purchase at the venue.  The show will be on exhibit at the Grolier Club, Second Floor Gallery, 47 East 60th Street, New York, NY, 10022, from March 25th through May 28th, 2010, Monday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm. The exhibition is free of charge and open to the public so you have no excuse not to see it for yourself.

I like odd things, even more so when they are made out of paper.  This should not be too surprising by now.  So I was really pleased when I came across these little oddities shown here.

These rubber band-activated paper toys come in four bizarre flavors, which I have dubbed clown, devil, yokel and shrew.  I’m guessing these are not the original monikers nor the first stereotypes little boys and girls clamber after at the toy store.  I’m also guessing they are from the 1970’s based on the artwork and original packaging.

In some ways, the box is even better than the toys.  I don’t know if I’m more scared by the heavy lidded children or the “new-astonishing” pop-up Pop-ettes.  Needless to say, I could find no information on these little critters or the manufacturer on the Internet, but maybe that is just as well.  I can’t imagine these being a big seller or that many sets survived the ages.  Which is a pity as there must have been a second “animals” version with the coveted tiger Pop-ette.  So in the interest of posterity I introduce you and the rest of the web to these unique pop-up toys.  “They snap! They Pop! They Chatter!” boasts the packaging for these four puppets.  These Pop-ettes do more than that…they totally freak me out, and I love them for it.

-Kyle

I don’t write fan letters often.  In fact, I can count them on one finger.  Yet, a few months ago, I visited Foley Gallery in Chelsea for the latest exhibit from Thomas Allen.  I was so blow away by his latest and (final!?!) series that I had to let him know how much I appreciated the art.  He mentioned that his creations are inspired by pop-ups so I thought it only fitting to take a piece of his full circle and make a pop-up out of one of his images.

Allen is one of my favorite artists and it’s not hard to see why I’m head over heels for his work.  He cuts and manipulates old pulp book covers into arresting compositions and then photographs them with selective focusing and great lighting.  I first learned about his work when the studio received a copy of the great Uncovered book from Aperture in 2007, and I have been following the artist ever since.

The cut paper…the dime-store detective novels…the clever arrangements…it’s like the work is genetically engineered to appeal to many of my diverging interests.  I cannot wait to see what Thomas Allen decides to do next!

-Kyle

Apparently, someone can’t take a joke.

British comedian, Ricky Gervais hosted the 2010 Golden Globes award ceremony last month and raised eyebrows with some of his off-color quips.  A few days later we learned that twelve thousand copies of his latest Flanimals Pop-up book was reported missing from the publisher’s warehouse.

There are a few theories of who may have hijacked the shipment.  It’s possible that the cargo just disappeared like lost luggage at an airport.  Or maybe thieves stole to merchandise thinking they lifted Plasma TVs and ended up with boxes of books.  Some folks suggest that Ricky had a hand in this as an elaborate publicity stunt.  He countered with his own suspicions when he stated, “This is obviously a misguided Flanimal Rights Group or an organized gang of eight-year-olds,”  Personally, I have my eye on an evil consortium of slighted actors that wanted revenge on Gervais after his remarks at the Globes.  Ringleader, Steve Carell was even quoted telling Gervais, “I will break you.”

Well played Mr. Carell, well played.

More details of the heist can be found in this article in Publishers Weekly.

Despite the lost, a full release of Flanimals Pop-Up will hit U.S. bookshelves on March 9.  If you can’t wait that long you can get a quick sneak peek of the book in this YouTube video starring Ricky himself.

-Kyle