A walk-through of pop-up/movable book history

 
Though not developed solely as a historical survey of pop-up and movable books, the upcoming show, Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn: Books That Move includes key examples of printed works published from 1476 up to 2008. It will be the first opportunity for many visitors to see some of the rarest examples of this book art form in rare treasures from Smithsonian Libraries collections, including works by Euclid & Apianus, and Descartes.

At the same time, visitors will view later works—some new and some familiar—represented by major paper engineers and designers such as van der Meer, Pienkowski, Lentz, Pelham, Sabuda, and Fischer.

The visitor experience will be multi-fold: to discover that pop-ups and movables have a long and significant history; to get a sense of the key publications from periods of history; and, to be introduced to the major designers who promoted paper engineering in the past up to the present day.—Elizabeth Periale