10 Pop-Up Stairs (thing)

10 Pop-Up Stairs, by Rein Jansma (Joost Elffers Books, 1982, 1999, ISBN (for 1999 edition) 1-55670963-3, is not the usual sort of pop-up book. It is a book of the sculptural qualities of Jansma's stair designs, reproduced in a relatively two dimensional media.

The book itself comes in a slipcase - all the text of the book is on the outside of the slipcase, leaving the pages of the book clean, showing only the designs of the stairs, free from blemishing text. The book itself is ten spreads of staircases, all designed by Rein Jansma, architect from The Netherlands and co-owner of Zwarts & Jansma.

The book, though merely normal in size (19 x 26 cm.), presents the stairs in a way that seems both monumental and sculptural. The stairs are small, but, on the pure white of the pages, they seem important. Even in a poorly lit room, the light falls on them in interesting ways, the shadows create beautiful effects.

My favorite staircase looks something like this:

                  _______________________________________________________________________
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                 |          ___________________________________________________          |
                 |         /                                                  /|         |
                 |        /                    _______________________       / |         |
                 |       /                    /|_                    /      /  |         |
                 |      /____________________/  /|_                 /______/   |         |
                 |     |                     |_/  /|_               |      |   |         |
                 |     |                       |_/  /|_             |      |   |         |
                 |     |                         |_/  /|_           |      |   |         |
                 |     |                           |_/  /|_         |      |   |         |
                 |     |                             |_/  /|_       |      |   |         | 
                 |_____|                               |_/  /|______|      |   |_________|
                /      |                                 |_/ /      |      |  /         /
               /       |                                  _|/       |__    | /         /
              /        |_________________________________/___________/ |___|/         /
             /                                           |___________|/              /
            /                                                                       /
           /                                                                       /          
          /                                                                       /
         /                                                                       /
        /                                                                       /
       /                                                                       /
      /                                                                       /
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    /                                                                       /
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  /                                                                       /
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As a whole, this is really an excellent book. At the price it was originally published at - about $40, it is a nice book, but certainly not for everyone. Currently, it is available at many closeout bookstores at a much more reasonable price - I paid $7 for my copy at Half-Price Books. At that price, it is a really wonderful book, one that I do not hesitate to reccomend to anyone who enjoys art and architecture.