Books On Books

ABC3D (2008)

ABC3D (2008)
Marion Bataille
Hardcover, paper on board, with holograph on front cover; H187 x W147 x D44 mm; 36 pop-up or movable pages. Acquired from Amazon.de, 31 May 2018.

“A” to “Z”

Becoming a “B”

“C” revealing a “D”

“X” sliding to “Y”

Although this book is available at retail, it is a delicate work. With small removable protective slips of paper inserted at points of friction, it is not a work to pull off the shelf, flip through and replace casually. “Flipping through” misses too much anyway. These are pages to tease apart, peer between, draw taut with fingers and thumbs holding the opposite edges tight, and work back and forth gently to appreciate the engineering.

VUES/LUES: Un Abécédaire de Marion Bataille (2018)

VUES/LUES (2018)
Marion Bataille
Leporello: H150 × W110 mm. Stitched card: H:110 x W250 mm. Acquired from Éditions ~zeug, 13 April 2020.

Vue means “view, sight, vision/eyesight or outlook”. “Picture postcard views” in French would be vues de carte postale. Lues is the past participle of the verb lire (“to read”) in the feminine plural, so the French for “Marion’s picture postcard views can be easily read as an abecedary” would be Les vues de cartes postale de Marion peuvent être lues facilement comme une abécédaire.

Facilement (“easily”), of course, depends on reading this leporello laterally in book fashion, not laterally in landscape fashion. But is it “O” for bull ring or bull ring for “O”?

Further Reading and Viewing

“ABCs: Bookmarking Book Art”, Books On Books, 29 November 2015.

ABC3D video from the publisher Albin Michel/Roaring Brook Press.

“Books by Marion Bataille and Complete Book Reviews”, Publishers Weekly, 18 August 2008. Accessed 25 March 2020.

Bataille, Marion. 10 (Paris: Albin Michel, 2010).

Bataille, Marion. AOZ (Paris: Le Trois Ourses, 2016).

Bataille, Marion. Bruits (Paris: Thierry Magnier, 2016).

Bataille, Marion. Numéro (Paris: Albin Michel, 2013).