Part souvenir, part pop-up book: this 3D card unfolds into a model of Alcatraz Island, with a brief prison history and the story of all 14 famous escape attempts, illustrated with photos of the prisoners and guards involved and every escape route.

The most famous of the fourteen is still unsolved – in June 1962, Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin slipped through hand-carved vents behind their cells and were never seen again, officially presumed drowned but never confirmed either way. It’s the basis for the film Escape from Alcatraz, and it’s the first thing most visitors want to know more about. This card lays out that escape and the other thirteen side by side, individually cellophane-sleeved – a distinctive gift a flat postcard can’t match.

Gay and Jack describe the inspiration behind the project: “We have been fascinated by pop-up cards and books since our kids were little. The idea for a pop-up map of Alcatraz came to us while looking at the 18″ × 24” poster we had previously published, featuring the island’s bird’s-eye-view illustration from our original 1985 guide.
With a few carefully placed cuts and folds, we discovered that the illustration could take on a three-dimensional form. That experiment led us to the work of Czech architect and illustrator Vojtěch Kubašta (1914–1992), renowned for his ingenious pop-up designs. His pop-up cards depicting hilltop castles in Czechoslovakia reminded us of Alcatraz and became an inspiration for our own design.
We taught ourselves the principles behind Kubašta’s pop-up technique and, after creating more than 100 cut-and-folded models, developed our own version of the three-dimensional format. “

For more pop-up info visit https://movablebooksociety.org/ and https://popuplady.com/

Related Guides