Artful Craftsmanship In Pop-Up Books Exhibition

Book reading is taken to a whole new level when a page is turned and up pops a cleverly engineered 3 dimensional model of the subject being read about. In the Lane Gallery at Puke Ariki from 3 February until 29 April, a quirky yet artful exhibition of Pop-Up Books will be on display over the summer months.

Collected by local enthusiast Charles Duke, the books cover many topics and form part of his collection of over 1,000 books, accumulated over almost 30 years.

“I started collecting Pop-Up books by mistake after I was given ‘The Ultimate Cocktail Pop-Up Book’ as a birthday present,” says Mr Duke. “I was intrigued with the intricacy, attention to detail and moving aspects of the book, to say nothing of the drinks! It was so different to the crude Pop-Up Books of my childhood.”

Pop-Up books cover almost every topic imaginable and appeal to all age groups. There are some startling examples including architecture, zoos, humorous books about phobias and Murphy’s Law! Nursery rhymes, religion, science, space, transportation, animals, geography, education and art are all to be found in the Pop-Up genre.

Mr Duke explains there are 3 types of editions for some books: general release editions available in book shops, special release editions available from the people who commissioned the book and the much rarer, individually numbered and signed limited editions, usually in a hard slipcase, released by the paper engineers themselves. “I am fortunate that my collection contains a number of limited edition books,” he says.

“As to my favourite book, I don’t have one, but I do have a favourite engineer: Robert Sabuda. He has really led the way recently in both the type of material tackled and the complexity of the engineering.” There are a number of his works in the exhibition.”

ENDS

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