National Museum of American History
1300 Constitution Ave., NW
Washington, DC
This exhibition on innovative book design highlights movable, pop-up, folding, and multiple-construction books from the year 1570 to the present day. Although today pop-up books are often found in the children's book section, the earliest movable books were tools to educate and document information, such as a calendar, the moon's movements, or the inner workings of the human heart. The show features more than 50 works arranged by construction type in four areas:
- movables (primarily books that have movable parts that do not emerge from the surface of the page)
- pop-ups (book that in variant ways do emerge from the page)
- folding books (accordion forms)
- fantastic forms (that use multiple constructions)
The exhibition also features two interactive videos (run continuously) and a cell phone audio tour.
