Turkish Take-away art

Before coming to Istanbul, I'd already practised something called the Turkish Map fold, a technique of folding a sheet of paper, normally square, into a pop-out. I'd brought a trial with me that I'd secured in an A4 folded in half as a book maquette.

While casually looking for a road atlas or other book of Turkish maps, I came across a publication entitled Kültüre Rotoları, meaning Cultural Routes. In this was a glossy magazine with evocative imagery of beautiful landscapes,  historic traditional rites, archaeological finds, and folk customs, a classic tourist guide. These full page images would be good subjects for the Turkish fold-outs. I made quite a few, and they sat on my desk for a few days. Then, one morning, I found some menus from one of the local tiny 'büfe' (say it aloud and it's buffet, a common linguistic occurrence in Turkish, like biftek, büro, çin [ç=j as in Joan], duş [ş=sh], şampü) shoved into the grill of the entry door. Gaudy and graphic these menus seemed a perfect counterpoint to the slick, travel industry-style images used for the Turkish Map fold: 

The wrinkled white sheet is from the butcher's where I bought my first beef mince. It was a matter of pointing at what appeared to be a very lean cut of sirloin, saying the magic words 'yarım kilo' or half kilo, and watching him cut off a piece which weighed, after he put it through the meat grinder before my eyes, 504 gr. Torn off a pack hanging on the wall, this paper is a very heavy waxy sheet, with a parchment-like weight. When I get a taste for kebaps again I will return and try to convince him to let me have some extra sheets - a perfect chemise for this book.

This ancient map was the first glossy image I wanted to be seen, a Turkish Map fold of a map:

Some archaeological finds:

Why is this called a Turkish Map fold? I'm not sure but it seems to me, after having folded and unfolded so many that the shape of the outer edge resembles one of the classic Islamic mosaic patterns,

easily seen here:

Note the menu selections on the carrier leaves. And finally, an archaeological site, with images of toasties.

When complete this will be a 32-page book with 16 tipped in fold-outs.