A.K. Peters Ltd. 8.5 x 11″ softback 120 pages 978-1-56881-584-8

Anyone who has bought Meenakshi’s previous two books (“modular” and “ornamental” origami) will know of her deep fascination and love of modular origami. You would think that publishing at this rate, at some point her creative well would dry up, but there are no signs of it in this book!

Chapters include geometry, simple cubes, “four sink base” models, pentagonal models, miscellaneous, plus a chapter by guest contributors Carlos Cabrino of Brazil, Daniel Kwan of the USA, Aldo Marcell of Nicaragua, and Tanya Vysochina of Ukraine. Appendices included recommended reading and websites.

Given the explosion of interest in modular folds (there is a healthy Facebook group devoted to them), there will undoubtedly be debates about “who created what and when”. Meenakshi tackles this honestly and sensibly. She talks about how a given unit was developed and rigorously acknowledges all those known to have worked in a similar vein.What’s more important, she brings an artistic sensibility to the designs, they are generally both engaging and eye-catching.

Yes, others may have created similar units, but it’s clear she’s following her own creative “nose” and as is often the case, creating one unit leads naturally to variations and further developments. Would that other creators were as pragmatic – few origami designs these days are genuinely original, and especially in modular work you should expect to be duplicated elsewhere, but it shouldn’t prevent you creating in your chosen field.

The illustrations are excellent and use of full colour throughout allows for many finished examples to inspire you. I personally dislike the slightly thin, glossy paper used for the book, but as long as you’re reasonably careful when handling the book, it shouldn’t be a major problem. All in all, a worthy addition to her collection and thoroughly recommended. More info and sample pages on her own amazing website.