It’s Feral Friday!
This week we’re highlighting a couple of artists’ book selections from our collection of Ediciones Vigía publications: Ritual de Sobrevida by Natalia Bolívar, and Cuento para un Hombre que Lloró Tapándose el Rostro by Digdora Alonso. Ritual de Sobrevida (translation: Survival Ritual) was edited by Laura Ruiz, translated by Guadalupe Vento, and designed with drawings by Rolando Estévez Jordán. It was published by Ediciones Vigía in Mantanzas, Cuba in 2011. Cuento para un Hombre que Lloró Tapándose el Rostro (translation: A story about a man who cried, covering his face) was edited by Gladys Mederos and designed with drawings by Rolando Estévez Jordán. It was published by Ediciones Vigía in a limited edition of 200 copies in Matanzas in 2000. Both of these works are highly interactive & sculptural, and are best experienced in person!
Ediciones Vigía (translation: Watchtower Editions) is an independent publisher located in Matanzas, Cuba that was co-founded by artist Rolando Estévez Jordán and poet Alfredo Zaldívar in 1985 as a gathering place for artists and writers to commune. Though their initial print ventures were limited to broadside flyers promoting meetings, they soon evolved into a book publishing house.
Working collaboratively, the artists, writers, and community volunteers of Ediciones Vigía employ repurposed materials such as butcher paper, yarn, fabric, leaves, dried flowers, and tin foil to create unique handmade editions in runs of 200 or less. While the material limitations of the publishing house do echo the economic limitations of everyday life in Cuba, Estévez has asserted that the handmade aesthetic of their publications was not chosen strictly "out of material need or because there existed no other possibilities…. Vigía emerges out of aesthetic necessities."
--Ana, Special Collections Graduate Intern
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