In 1954, the German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth created a book for the son of Claus Bremer, the German dramatist and concrete poet. Known as Kinderbuch, the book consisted of op-art-y geometric shapes and patterns rippling across 28 letterpressed cardboard pages folded in half like album covers--an early boardbook, really. Roth published Kinderbuch himself in Reykjavik in 1956, in an edition of 100, 25 of which were signed and included perforations and cutout designs.
Kinderbuch was included in the 2004 retrospective of Roth's work at MoMA QNS. I've never seen an original Kinderbuch for sale [but then, before 2004, I hadn't been looking too hard, either]. But if I read the description of this 1976 Roth box set correctly, it includes a reproduction of Kinderbuch. It's $US391, so you'll want to wait till the bookgnawing phase is over.
Then again, I don't know how old Bremer's kid was when Roth started the book, but considering how long it took to get the book out the door in the first place, waiting seems to be an integral part of the concept.
Children's Book, 1956 [dieter-roth-foundation.com]
Boekbeeld has more photos of Roth's Kinderbuch [telenet.be]
