Week 36: Welcome to the City!

   The book-of-the-week for week 36 is a right angle double gatefold book titled WELCOME TO THE CITY! A variable edition of eight books was printed. Each book consists of a single sheet of cardstock laminated on both sides with a map and then letterpress printed with the poem. For the book shown in this week's post, a map of the area around Washington DC and Virginia is the background. Maps used for the other books include Delaware, coastal North Carolina, Durham North Carolina, and central Pennsylvania. The typeface used was 14-point Caslon Bold.

title page and page 1:
Welcome To The City!
Have You Lost Your Way?

   The process to create the folding structure involves cutting an H-shaped slit in the center of the book after right angle gatefolds (folding paper edges toward the center line) are made. This makes it possible to flip the panels inward and outward.  As this is done, the shape of the book changes from a rectangle to a cross, then back to a rectangle again, and then back to a cross, and finally back to a rectangle. So that four different page spreads are revealed (eight pages). Following the folding pattern over and over again makes reading the book somewhat like singing a round. Reading can continue indefinitely.

side panels swing in, and pages 3 and 4 are revealed

upper and lower panels swing in, and pages 5 and 6 are revealed

pages 5 and 6... Don't ever give up! Just follow the signs.

flipping the panels to reveal pages 7 and 8...

turn to see pages 7 and 8... This Way! That Way!

final flip.. and it's back to the beginning.

And around and around it goes... the never-ending book... WELCOME TO THE CITY!