Grand Musical Staircase

Introduction

Extended accordion-like view of "Ode to a Grand Staircase (For Four Hands)" by Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum

Julie Chen and Barbara Tetenbaum’s “Ode to a Grand Staircase (For Four Hands)” is an artist’s book inspired by the work of Erik Satie, a French composer whose work influenced early twentieth-century music. This artist’s book was published in 2001 by the Flying Fish Press (Berkeley, CA) via Julie Chen and the Triangular Press (Portland, Oregon) via Barbara Tetenbaum. The artists’ book is a multi-layered visual narrative inspired by Erik Satie’s music, specifically “Marche du Grand Escalier” (March of the Grand Staircase), composed in 1914. The book can be rearranged into an accordion-like shape representing a grand staircase. Colorful images and cut-outs comprise the book’s pages, as well as text taken from “Marche du Grand Escalier” that Satie included in his scores. Penn Libraries acquired copy number 69 of this artists’ book via the Amy Comegys Memorial Fund and the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Fund for the Arts of the Contemporary Book Collections. The book is located in the Kislak Center for Special Collections at the University of Pennsylvania.

About the Authors

Julie Chen

Julie Chen, book artist and professor

Julie Chen is an Asian American book artist and educator from California who established the Flying Fish Press in 1987 while she was a graduate student studying Book Art at Mills College in Oakland, California. She publishes her work via this imprint in small editions which are displayed in museums and libraries all around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. Julie conducts extensive research about certain topics, people or regions before designing her artists’ books. She uses letterpress printed images and cards to assemble her books, and usually designs a box covering for each work. She started making these books when she was in her mid-twenties, and describes the book-making process as constantly having many different moving parts in progress that eventually come together as one unified piece. Her artists’ books do not have much separation between structure and content. She has collaborated with other artists such as Barbara Tetenbaum and Lois Morrison. She teaches Book Art at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Barbara Tetenbaum

Barbara Tetenbaum, visual artist and professor

Barbara Tetenbaum is a visual artist who explores reading through print, animation and installation. She founded the Triangular Press in 1979 to publish her works and has received two Fulbright Fellowships and other career rewards. For 25 years she led the Book and Print Department at Oregon College of Art and Craft and is now a Visiting Professor of Studio Art at Reed College.

Artists’ Books

Artists’ books are unlike the regular books that we read today – they vary vastly in format and many are not meant to or cannot be read in a conventional textbook-style manner (from left to right). Artists have enhanced texts by adding decorative elements and illustrations throughout history. The introduction of the printing press is what made the evolution of illustrative formats such as woodcuts and engravings possible, and the mass production of books began. In the early twentieth century in France, the illustrated book reached its height with printed illustrations by famous artists like Picasso. The modern artists’ book genre took these concepts and “manipulate[d] the book into a work of art that conveys an idea in a visual and tactile format.”