Street View

The eye is the beholder in this text-free, illustrated drama. Unique in style, this accordion book, backed by two hard covers enclosing pleated pages that allow reading both backward and forward, leads the reader into a vivid theatrical setting. The design is invitingly beguiling as the graphically colorful pages present a street scene allowing the reader to peer into the store fronts, apartment windows, and onto the sidewalk surroundings and to conjure up what these visual scenes represent. Alfred Hitchcock’s paunchy silhouette is evident in several of the frames, as this pictorial play is obviously a parody of the classic thriller Rear Window.

There is a refreshing quality to this illustrated presentation that invites the viewer to ruminate over the actions of the players and to question the intentions of the participants. The stories can be viewed as morning events when read in one direction, whereas the opposite route portrays the evening proceedings. A range of emotions seem to foment as the viewer writes a script for the activities depending on the interpretation—is there love or hate, innocence or crime, fun or mischief? The scaffolding is there, but the script is in the mind of the viewer.