The Lively Dance (1983)

The Lively Dance (1983)
Anne-Catherine Fallen
Handbound book, sewn; endflaps secured at fore edge with bamboo twig to create wedge-shaped book. Laid flat, H223 x W157 mm; wedge fore edge, W75 mm. [18] pages. Edition of 200. Acquired from Stand 132, Zurich. 18 January 2026.
Photos: Books On Books Collection. Displayed with the artists permission.

The Lively Dance is an elaborate and simple artist’s book. It consists of an eleven-line poem arranged across ten of eighteen pages displaying a stand of bamboo. Four pleated sheets of translucent paper, also displaying the stand of bamboo, overlap and bind those ten pages at the fore edge. Here is the book’s opening double-page spread with the translucent overlay first in place and then pulled back to reveal the poem’s invitation: “Come join the solemn dance”.

COME JOIN THE SOLEMN DANCE

The second double-page spread with translucent overlays in place.

Lifting and holding back each translucent overlay, the reader/viewer may have the sense of wading into a stand of bamboo. Although each double-page spread displays the same image of bamboo, the overall impression is otherwise because the images on the translucent overlays differ from the one repeating underneath. Also slowing the perception of the sameness of that image underneath (or behind) the overlays, the text is physically and syntactically scattered. The eye jumps about to find the text and, having found it, jumps back and forth with its syntactic ambiguity. Is it that “the sun dances / leaping lightly over the leaves”, or is it that “leaping lightly over the leaves, we will dance”? Undoubtedly, it is both. If you have ever peered into the confusing density of a stand of bamboo, you will recognize that the syntactic jumping around echoes the visual jumping around as the eye tries to sort out the foreground from the background and vice versa.

THE LIVELY DANCE
the sun dances
leaping lightly over the leaves, we will dance

INHALE THE BITTER BREATH
the wind drifts
whispering gently through the leaves, we will drift

THE SWEET BREATH
the shadows sleep
settling softly on the leaves, we will sleep

RELEASE

Stood upright, the book makes it difficult to access the underlying text and images, but it adds a sculptural dance that complements the memory of what has been read and viewed in codex fashion with the book laid flat. It also reveals another and crucial set of images. Closed, the book’s wedge shape created by the twig-fastened flaps gave a clue to that other set of images. Opened, the book’s pleated attachment of pairs of folios reiterated the clue to our fingers as we paged through the codex structure.

Behind the pleated translucent attachment with its faint green images of the bamboo forest, we find sepia images of the forest’s interior. Like the image on the double-page spreads, the sepia images are really only one repeating image. We can only view it from the top or bottom edge of the book. Looking down, we see the brown individual trunks or stems of the trees rising from the forest floor.

Looking from the bottom edge, we can see the forest floor.

One other view or step in the dance can be had with the upright display. If the cover flaps are refastened to bring the book into a star book display with the translucent overlay’s pages pulled out and its pleated edges pinched together, we have the dense stand of bamboo in the round with its sepia interior hidden away.

By now, all this playing with the codex laid flat and stood upright will have prised apart the text and perhaps reminded the reader/viewer of the meaning of other woods “lovely, dark and deep”.

Fallen describes The Lively Dance on her website here. Among her observations on her site, she notes that her house is surrounded by bamboo. Except for one entry displaying snow on bamboo, The Lively Dance seems to be her primary artistic celebration of it. It is a celebration that provides a dual personal pleasure in the collection. When I am exploring the book, I am reminded of the local stand of bamboo and its density. When I am passing the bamboo on the daily dog walks, I am reminded of The Lively Dance.

East Hagbourne, Oxfordshire

Further Reading

Fallen, Anne-Catherine, William C. Allen, and Karen D. Solit. 2007. A Botanic Garden for the Nation : The United States Botanic Garden. [Washington, DC]: [U.S. GPO].

Fallen, Anne-Catherine, Herbert J. Sanborn, and Kevin Osborn.1986. In Context : Contemporary Artists’ Books and Their Antecedents : March 14-April 27, 1986. Alexandria, Virginia: The Athenaeum.

Fallen, Anne-Catherine, Kevin Osborn, and Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos (Barcelona, Spain). 1986. New Narratives : American Bookworks in Print = Noves Narratives : Llibres d’Artista Nord-Americans = Nuevas Narrativas : Libros de Artista Norteamericanos. Barcelona: Institut d’estudis Nord-Americans.