Tunnel Books

Lane's Telescop View

Source: Special Collections at Johns Hopkins University from Baltimore City, United States, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

See more images of this book at https://flickr.com/photos/41637252@N04/4683026952.

There is a type of pop-up book that does not contain spreads or pages. It may or may not contain moving mechanisms or other actions. It is nonetheless fascinating from a 3-dimensional point of view. It is a Tunnel Book.

The concept is that a structure is formed by accordion folds with regularly spaced planes that bridge from the left to the right or from top to bottom between the outer folds. When the accordion is extended, the planes separate, forming a long space, or tunnel, defined by a series of planes going back in perspective. This concept allows for actual perspective from layer to layer, but could also include forced perspective by making each layer's visual components progressively smaller. In this way, a tunnel book that opens 20" deep could look like it opens 40".

Another name for this type of book is a "Peep Show". The basic structure is also known as a "bellows". The simplest design utilizes planes of equal height and width, where the visual statement is made through cutouts in the planes, forming a series of frames. Other designs allow for variations in the scale of the planes so that more distant planes either grow or shrink in size, depending upon the desired visual effect.

There are different ways to present a tunnel book. It can be mounted with handles on the front and back cover allowing the viewer to pick it up and extend it for viewing from the front. It can also be designed to stand in the open position on a table, or be made to drop down using gravity to keep it extended. The front panel can be open, like a picture window, or for dramatic effect, there could be a small circular peep hole on the front cover for viewing. This method places the viewer "inside" the scene by putting them up very close. Some have lenses to aid in focusing on close-up objects. Another variant is to have two holes that allow for stereo viewing, where the left and right scenes contain differences, accentuating the three-dimensionality.

Girl in the Forest

The tunnel book seen above was created by Oksana Gornostaeva to capture a mood. The artist's daughter was observed standing on a tree lined street in Spain. Oksana then imagined a girl deep in a lonely and powerful forest. How would the experience make the small child feel? That was her inspiration. Below are a few more images, showing angle views, materials used, as well as the "real scene" Oksana took as reference. Copic Markers were the medium of choice.

The Girl in the Forest, caught my attention immediately because of its use of composition to draw my eye into the scene. Notice the forced perspective from layer to layer. The trees are both farther away physically, but also proportionally made smaller, so that the overall depth appears greater than it is in reality. The photos taken at an angle reveal how important it is to document your work from a sculptural point of view. If only observing the piece from front-on, as in the image above, it is not possible to know for sure if the work has actual dimension or is completely flat. The photographs that show the shadows behind the layers help conjure the feeling of massiveness and forbidding wonder; as though there is a lot more forest all around. It is interesting that the trees are arranged to form a trail or road. This either means that the forest is the route between two known points, or that someone or something created this path to draw travelers into its magic world.

Amanda Vivrette's Tunnel Book

Tunnel Book of an Animal Cell