One of the Best Cuban Handmade Books

El gran vidrio: Último discurso de Zaratustra [The Great Eye: The Last Word from Zarathustra]

Serrano, José Luis

Publication: Holguín, Cuba: Editorial Cuadernos Papiro, 2006.

Notes: This is one of the most interesting Cuadernos Papiro books combining letterpress printing with found objects and showing formal inventiveness and great harmony between the artistic and literary elements. Of the books published by Cuadernos Papiro, this one perhaps adheres closest to the North American definition of an artist's book, with its form and content offering a commentary on the idea of the book itself.

The front cover, a sheet of handmade paper with tobacco fibers, is die-cut to reveal a discarded medical X-ray. It opens down to reveal two books, bound Japanese-style to either edge of the rear cover. The left-hand book is a collection of poems printed letterpress on various colors of handmade paper. Each poem is preceded by the title, in the form "Para ... ", printed on a separate sheet. The poems are decimas, Serrano's preferred form.

The right-hand side has a similar construction, only instead of poems there are mounted found objects selected by Rubén Hechavarría Salvia. The titles, such as "Para romper" and "Para desconectar", mean something like, "In order to break" or "How to disconnect." The final leaf on the found-object book is titled "Para garabatear" or "In order to doodle." Turning the page reveals a blank space on the colophon where, perhaps, the reader is intended to add their own illustration.

14 by 7 inches (oblong). Edition size ca. 100 copies.

Edition + Condition: Very good (a bit of loss at the spine ends). Each copy is unique. This example includes (among other things) as its found objects a portion of a pelvis X-ray, a ration form, a cigarette box label, a medical order for an X-ray, and a beer bottle label. The colophon is printed on the inside of the back panel. The edition size (50 copies, in this case; also seen with 80), is handwritten, as is the copy number, 25.

ISBN: 9789597163176

Item No: #363490

Price: $750