A book format that I continue to revisit is the tunnel book for its playfulness not only in appearance but also for the fun I have putting them together. When Kristin, from Space Paste Press, suggested that we make a tunnel book for the August intellectual collaboration I jumped at the idea.

In order to narrow down the scope of the project, we decided that the book will center around one line of text and stay within 5 to 6 frames.

I had some prints left over from a graphic design class I took a while ago. I printed the common pangram (a sentence that contains every letter of the alphabet at least once) “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Immediately, a stage setting came into mind and I knew how I wanted the book to take shape.

The book cover opens in the center, taking the format of a pair of doors. By turning the right knob clockwise a bar behind the cover lifts and allows the doors to open. It works for what I meant it to do, but if I were to do it again, I would have used wood or metal. I used binder’s board out of convenience, not choice, because it is not strong enough to keep the doors completely shut.
Below is a photo of what the mechanism looks like from the inside of the book.

Overall, I wanted the book to have the feeling of a play or a show. I cut out each word and attached them with silk threads. The idea was to emphasize the “set” qualities by allowing their attachments to remain visible.

Each of the five panels is hand painted on matte board. The accordion hinges (not visible in the photo) on the sides are made from paper and thin board. The better choice would have been cloth covered board.

Space Paste Press August theater book project.

Past Spring Leaf Press Intellectual Collaboration Projects
July: Paste Cloth
June: Accordion
May: Ephemera
April: National Poetry Month
March: Stuff in a Box
February: Zine
January: Jacob’s Ladder