Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

Featuring: The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn. A perfect entry for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Joan Sommers, a Chicago based book designer, has created several tunnel books including Henri Rousseau Tunnel Book and A Sunday on La Grand Jatte Tunnel Book. Made popular as a novelty in the 18th century, tunnel books or peep-shows give the viewer a sense of perspective as several scenes are revealed as the book is fully unfolded. Sommers was inspired in this work by Mexican artist José Guadelupe Posada’s drawings illustrating the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. In this 16-page tunnel book we see skeletons playfully dancing the fandango, playing music, making tortillas, and courting their lovers.—Stephen Van Dyk

The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book/Gran baile de Calaveras, un libro tύnel. Joan Sommers. Spanish translation by Valerie Shull. Chicago: Tunnel Vision Books, 2006.

Featuring: Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

 Lothar Meggendorfer, a Munich graphic designer, illustrated and engineered more than two hundred pop-up and movable books. Beginning in the 1870s, he created a series of intricate and amusing illustrated pull-tab books, having developed a complex system of multiple levers that when manipulated caused figures to move at the same time on the page surface. Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch, like many of his living pictures series of this time, consists of a series of familiar yet amusing figures that move when the pull tab is pulled. A girl draws water from a well, a painter a portrait on an easel, women wash clothes, a musician plays a cello, a butcher chops meat, and a dog is taught a new trick.

—Stephen Van Dyk

Neue lebende Bilder: ein Ziehbilderbuch [New living pictures: A pull-picture-book]. Illustrations and paper engineering by Lothar Meggendorfer. Verlag von Braun & Schneider, c.1880.

 

Featuring: Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Dean & Son, a British publisher produced a large number of movable books from the 1840s through 1880s introducing innovative cut-paper and pull tab mechanisms. In the 1850s, Dean created their “New Scenic Books” series of which Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper is an example. As the story is being read, cut-paper illustrated forms connected by ribbon are unfolded giving the appearance that they are popping up from the page surface. This work contains several such pop-up stage set illustrations that dramatically enhance this well-known fairy tale.—Stephen Van Dyk

Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper. London: Dean & Son, c.1850.

 

Featuring: Inside the Personal Computer

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Ron van der Meer, a Dutch paper engineer living England, studied graphic design before exploring the world of pop-up books. Van der Meer, having created more than 100 pop-ups, first worked with Wally Hunt at Intervisual Communications in California to create his first pop-ups in the early 1980s.

Inside the Personal Computer: An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions: A Pop-Up Guide, like many van der Meer’s works, is a fine example of a pop-up book that is informative and geared to adults. The intricate box-like forms of the personal computer unfold dramatically from the page surface with attention given to even the smaller details of the machine (including the floppy disk!).—Stephen Van Dyk

Inside the Personal Computer: An Illustrated Introduction in 3 Dimensions: A Pop-Up Guide. Text by Sharon Gallagher. Paper engineering and design by Ron van der Meer. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.

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Paper Engineering Lecture Series

Top: Angels: a pop-up book [illustrations by] Chuck Fischer; text by Curtis Flowers; paper engineering by Bruce Foster.

Bottom: Yellow square: a pop-up book for children of all ages, by David A. Carter.

The Libraries will be hosting a series of lectures to accompany its current exhibition at the National Museum of American History, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Save the date on your calendar for these sure-to-be-fascinating talks about pop-ups from some of the leading artists in the field:

Ellen Rubin, aka the “Pop-up Lady”—"A History of Pop-up and Movable Books: 700 Years of Paper Engineering," Wednesday November 10, 2010, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon.

Chuck Fischer, Wednesday Dec 1, 2010, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon. There will also be a book signing.

David Carter, Saturday April 16, 2011, Carmichael Auditorium, National Museum pf American History, 12th street and Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 12 noon. There will also be a book signing.

Stay tuned for additional lectures and dates to be announced!

—Elizabeth Periale

Featuring: One Red Dot

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

California-based children’s author and illustrator David Carter has created numerous colorful pop-up and movable books, beginning in the late 1980’s with a series featuring insects. Carter masterfully encourages the reader to discover— whether learning to count or finding something hidden in the book while, at the same time, experiencing the joy of surprise as figures pop-up off the page surface. One Red Dot consists of a series of pop-ups in which a red dot is hidden. The bold graphics and intricate sculptural forms truly make this book a portable work of art.—Stephen Van Dyk

One Red Dot. One red dot: a pop-up book for children of all ages. David A. Carter. New York: Little Simon, 2005, c2004.

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New and Notable: Yellow Square

PopUps!

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Featuring: Tony Sarg’s Surprise Book: Look, Listen, Smell, Taste and Feel

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn.

Tony Sarg was a German-American puppeteer and illustrator who created designs for the large balloons used in the 1928 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and later, in the 1930s, he decorated Macy’s display windows. He illustrated a series of pop-up and flap books, notably Where’s Tommy (1932), Tony Sarg’s treasure book (1942), and this work. Tony Sarg’s Surprise Book: Look, Listen, Smell, Taste and Feel encourages children to experience the five senses—to listen, feel, taste, smell, and view. Included is a colorful volvelle (or wheel) that can be turned as it illustrates the nursery rhythm “The Cow jumps over the moon”.

—Stephen Van Dyk

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The Fascinating Art of Paper Engineering . . . Fantastic Forms

The fascinating art of paper engineering is the focus of a new exhibit that is on display in the Libraries’ gallery at the National Museum of American History. Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn includes 44 books that range in date from the mid-16th to the early 21st centuries, creating a fascinating retrospective of volumes, which were designed and constructed with parts that move. Selected by Stephen Van Dyk, the exhibit curator at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library in New York, the books are divided into four primary categories according to each one’s paper construction type, as well as the mechanisms employed. The groups include Movables, Pop-Ups, Folding Mechanisms, and Fantastic Forms. The Office of Exhibits Central collaborated with the Libraries on the organization and production of the exhibit. This post will focus on “Fantastic Forms,” which embrace those books which contain a combination of construction types.
 
The fourth category of books included in the exhibit, “Fantastic Forms,” incorporates multiple construction types, which range from traditional mechanisms to ever-changing new innovations.  Mega-Beasts by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart, printed by Candlewick Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2007, is one of many examples included in the exhibit.

“Fantastic Forms” book: Mega-Beasts.

Office of Exhibits Central's Richard Gould and Stoy Popovich place a plexi vitrine on top of the “Fantastic Forms” case base using rubber suction cups.

The completed “Fantastic Forms” case.

“Fantastic Forms” book, titled One Red Dot: A Pop-Up Book for Children of All Ages, by
David A. Carter, was printed by Little Simon, New York, in 2004.

From their varied subject matter—scientific, theatrical, religious, historical—to their wide-ranging forms of construction—Movables, Pop-Ups, Folding Mechanisms, Fantastic Forms—the books included in Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn are multi-dimensional works of art.  The exhibit captures the excitement and wonder, as well as the complexity and sometimes seemingly gravity-defying actions, of these captivating books.

—Lori Dempsey, Smithsonian Office of Exhibits Central

Page Turners in Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn

Pop-up mechanisms—which allow certain elements to pop up from the surface of a book page—are just some of the paper construction types highlighted in the Libraries’ exhibit, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn, on view in the Libraries’ gallery at the National Museum of American History. The exhibit, described on the Office of Exhibit Central’s (OEC) website in June 2010, includes 44 books that range in date from the mid-16th to the early 21st centuries, creating an intriguing retrospective of volumes, which were designed and constructed with parts that move.

Selected by Stephen Van Dyk, the exhibition curator and Librarian at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, the books are divided into four primary categories according to each one’s paper construction type, as well as the mechanisms employed. The groups consist of Movables, Pop-Ups, Folding Mechanisms, and Fantastic Forms or Multiple Constructions. Examples of mechanisms contained in two of these categories—Pop-Ups and Multiple Constructions—can be activated by visitors to the gallery thanks to a clever page-turning device, loaned to the Libraries by Ann Montanaro, President of the Movable Book Society. Originally constructed by Waldo Hunt, publisher and founder of InterVisual Books, it was used as a prototype by OEC’s model shop to construct the page turners that are on display in the exhibit. Wow!: The Pop-Up Book of Sports (on the left) and The Pop-Up Book of Phobias (on the right), donated to the exhibition by Susan R. Frampton, are connected to the devices, and allow viewers to see the paper engineering mechanisms at work, at the push of a button.

A windshield wiper-like arm has a small fork at the end which captures the page and holds it in place. The arm is connected to a low-powered synchronous timing motor that is concealed inside the pedestal on which the device sits, which moves the arm back and forth; as the arm moves, the page follows along with it. By the time the arm has completed its trip from right to left, the previous page has been turned, and a new page has been revealed; the arm then moves in the opposite direction so that the previous page is visible once more. The cycle is slow enough that visitors can watch the book’s moving parts with ease, as they open and close.

“From studying the Libraries’ page turner, I had a good idea of how I wanted to construct the device for the Paper Engineering exhibit,” said OEC model maker, Jon Zastrow. “A low voltage push button activates a relay, and turns the 120V timing motor to the ‘on’ position. The page turner arm swings through its cycle. A micro switch opens the circuit, turning off the motor each time the arm reaches its ‘home’ position, until the button is pushed again, thereby conserving energy.” The fabric-covered pedestal on which the page turner sits, has a slot cut into it to provide a free range of motion for the device’s arm as it moves back and forth. The device, itself, is constructed of molded plexiglas, which serves as a book cradle.

The exacting design and engineering of the various book elements allow authors to create an infinite number of variations—at all levels of complexity—which work together successfully. The page turners help viewers see how the mechanisms function, and how the various elements connect to one another. Due to the great popularity of Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn, the page turners have already completed thousands of revolutions. They will, no doubt, continue to delight visitors for thousands more revolutions to come.

—Lori Dempsey, Office of Exhibits Central, Smithsonian Institution

The Fascinating Art of Paper Engineering . . . Folding Mechanisms

The fascinating art of paper engineering is the focus of a new exhibit that is on display in the Libraries’ gallery at the National Museum of American History. Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn includes 44 books that range in date from the mid-16th to the early 21st centuries, creating a fascinating retrospective of volumes, which were designed and constructed with parts that move. Selected by Stephen Van Dyk, the exhibit curator at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library in New York, the books are divided into four primary categories according to each one’s paper construction type, as well as the mechanisms employed. The groups include Movables, Pop-Ups, Folding Mechanisms, and Fantastic Forms. The Office of Exhibits Central collaborated with the Libraries on the organization and production of the exhibit.

This post will focus on “Folding Mechanisms,” books which fold and unfold in an accordion-like manner, and include three basic construction types: carousels; tunnels or peep shows; and leporellos. The Sleeping Beauty, for example, is an exquisite carousel book, printed by L. van Leer in Amsterdam, ca. 1950, with illustrations by Roland Pym. The hidden complexities of its carousel shape, when opened to a 360° circle, can be seen from above.

The Sleeping Beauty

“Aerial view: The Sleeping Beauty

In contrast, Van Dyk noted, “The tunnel book or peep-show, consisting of a series of illustrated cards edged with figures or scenery placed at a distance, one behind the other, creates the illusion of depth and perspective. A notable example is a beautifully hand-colored peep show called Garden Scene, created by German engraver Martin Engelbrecht (1684-1756), who popularized these curious tunnel books in the 18th century.”  Printed in Augsburg, Germany, ca. 1750, the book depicts an elegant dance scene set in a classical garden.

Garden Scene

A particularly interesting mounting solution was devised for the “Folding Mechanisms” tunnel book, Garden Scene, a detailed description of which is posted on the Libraries' blog. Following an extensive conservation treatment by Vanessa Haight Smith to stabilize the book’s condition, a slotted rectangular box was fabricated out of plexi, into which the individual leaves of the tunnel structure were inserted. When looking at the book from the front, the full scene can be viewed, along with its magnificent perspective. As one walks around the side of the case, however, the scene dissolves into its individual layers, and the author’s engineering skills become apparent.

From their varied subject matter—scientific, theatrical, religious, historical—to their wide-ranging forms of construction—Movables, Pop-Ups, Folding Mechanisms, Fantastic Forms—the books included in Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop, and Turn are multi-dimensional works of art. The exhibit captures the excitement and wonder, as well as the complexity and sometimes seemingly gravity-defying actions, of these captivating books.

—Lori Dempsey, Smithsonian Office of Exhibits Central

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