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Featuring: The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book

Featuring a title from the Libraries' pop-up book collection and current exhibition, Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop & Turn. A perfect entry for Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

Joan Sommers, a Chicago based book designer, has created several tunnel books including Henri Rousseau Tunnel Book and A Sunday on La Grand Jatte Tunnel Book. Made popular as a novelty in the 18th century, tunnel books or peep-shows give the viewer a sense of perspective as several scenes are revealed as the book is fully unfolded. Sommers was inspired in this work by Mexican artist José Guadelupe Posada’s drawings illustrating the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. In this 16-page tunnel book we see skeletons playfully dancing the fandango, playing music, making tortillas, and courting their lovers.—Stephen Van Dyk

The Dancing Skeletons Tunnel Book/Gran baile de Calaveras, un libro tύnel. Joan Sommers. Spanish translation by Valerie Shull. Chicago: Tunnel Vision Books, 2006.

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