I have been making oversized pop-up books that combine my photography with pop-up paper engineering for more than twenty years.
I am a Philadelphia-based artist who received my MFA in Fine Art Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2003, and soon after, began devising complex compositions that incorporate photography and pop-up paper engineering. My pop-up books are housed in esteemed institutions such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Library of Congress, the Getty Research Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and many private and rare archive collections.
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麵 高如山 Noodle Mountain
Inspired by the album cover of the children’s song On Top of Spaghetti, Noodle Mountain contemplates the deeply personal memories as well as the complex intergenerational histories of place, labor, and diaspora that food can conjure.
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桃花源記 Tao Hua Yuan Ji
Tao Hua Yuan Ji illustrates a story written by Tao Yuanming, an Eastern Jin Dynasty (317–420) poet. It is the largest pop-up book in the world, and was built and opened inside the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center gallery.
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We Are the Dragon People
With the help of a Fulbright fellowship, I began photographing for We are Tiger Dragon People in 2008. 25 of the 55 minority tribes of China reside in Yunnan Province and comprise less than 8.5% of the nation’s population, with the Han representing the majority.
“Although Fu’s books are motionless, their exuberant shapes, intense colors, and closely interwoven pop-up pages give the impression of being alive. Her themes are largely inspired by her personal experiences, but her art also embodies—and inspires—feelings of joy, sorrow, and curiosity experienced by all of humankind... Each of Fu’s pop-up books tells a story. She is a fearless wanderer who shares her wonders and helps us understand the world around us."
– Krystyna Wasserman, National Museum of Women in the Arts