Sandra Chevrier CAGES Portfolio: six pop-ups for separate display

CAGES: THE POP UP BOOK — PORTFOLIO EDITION changes the format of Sandra Chevrier’s book collaboration with Poposition Press. Rather than keeping the six pop-up works together as an ordinary bound volume, it supplies six individually bound constructions designed to be framed or displayed separately as paper sculptures. The portfolio was announced in an edition of one hundred at US$750, with each portfolio signed and numbered by Chevrier. Preorders opened on 29 June 2021 at noon New York time, with production and hand assembly planned over that summer and delivery expected in autumn. Artist’s original collection announcement.

The six subjects are LA CAGE ET LE CŒUR DE LA BÊTE; LA CAGE AUX MILLE ET UN VISAGES; LA CAGE ET LES LAMBEAUX ROUGES COMME LE FEU; LA CAGE ET LE GRONDEMENT DU TONNERRE; LA CAGE ET LA MORT DE SUPERMAN / DANS L’ATTENTE DE NOTRE SAUVEUR; and NOUS SOMMES UNS. All three book configurations draw on those subjects. The portfolio’s distinguishing feature is how the works are bound and presented, not a claim to contain six exclusive new images absent from the other editions.

The standard edition was limited to 1,500 copies at US$75. Its laser-cut cover uses NOUS SOMMES UNS, and the book measures 9 by 11.5 by 1 inches, with pages opening to 11 by 17 inches. Those measurements describe the standard book; the announcement does not separately give the complete portfolio box dimensions. That matters when planning a display or storage arrangement: do not transfer the bound book’s dimensions to the portfolio merely because the artwork is related.

Between them sits the Special Edition, a run of two hundred at US$300. It includes a gold-foil-stamped book, a custom box, an enamel pin, a signed and numbered bookplate and two greeting cards. The Portfolio Edition instead includes its separate pop-ups, a die-cut foil-stamped box with spot-varnish details, the eighteen-colour enamel pin in a custom box and three greeting cards with stickers. Comparing a secondhand set therefore requires a contents check as well as the edition number: the signed bookplate from the Special Edition is not interchangeable evidence for the signed portfolio configuration.

The publisher’s current CAGES collection page lists the three book editions out of stock. The 2021 delivery estimate remains part of the release history and is not a current shipping promise. Poposition Press collection. For collectors choosing a format, the meaningful difference is whether the paper engineering will be encountered as a sequential book or as individually displayed objects. The source supports that intended presentation, but does not establish conservation framing specifications; a framer would need the actual construction and dimensions before proposing an enclosure.