** On a short vacation. Orders will be shipped when I return April 1. **
A 320-page catalog of more than 300 handmade books from Ediciones Vigía, Cuadernos Papiro, and Ediciones El Fortín over the last 30 years.
Short videos of individual books are available on my YouTube Channel.
Ediciones Vigía
Of the three publishers, Ediciones Vigía is the oldest—established in 1985 by Alfredo Zaldívar and Rolando Estévez—and the best known inside and outside of Cuba. It has been the subject of exhibitions in many countries and even a monograph in the US, the recently released Handmade in Cuba.
Estévez, a set designer by profession, established the design aesthetic for Vigía. A large group of writers, artists, and artisans in the Vigía circle collaborate to publish hundreds of individually designed, and hand assembled books.
Typically, one artist creates a maquette for a book and then a group of artisans will figure out how to replicate the design 200 times. Most early Vigía books had print runs of 100 and later 200 copies, because that was as many as it was possible to produce before the mimeograph masters wore out, a tradition that continued after new printing technology was acquired.
While Ediciones Vigía has published many well-known writers from Europe and the Americas, it has retained its focus on the community of writers in and around Matanzas. Few publishers anywhere have produced so many literary books by regional writers and Vigía’s local emphasis is unparalleled among the makers of artist’s books.
In the post-Estévez era, several designers who once worked alongside him have begun to shape a new Vigía aesthetic, notably Elizabeth Valero Molina, Frank David Valdés, Adrián Milián Suárez, Marialva Ríos, and Johann E. Trujillo.
Ediciones El Fortín
Ediciones El Fortín is a spinoff of Vigía, founded by Estévez in 2014. This new Matanzas imprint claims to be based in “Bellamar”, which means “lovely sea.” Bellamar is intended to counter the violence implied by naming a city Matanzas, which might be translated as “Murderville.”. El Fortín produces books in small numbers, usually fewer than 50 copies, with elaborate structures and packaging. While Fortín books are much closer to Estévez’s one-of-a-kind book-art pieces than the typical Vigía title, they also make extensive use of Vigía-style handcoloring and paper and fabric collage.
Cuadernos Papiro
Cuadernos Papiro started as a papermaking collective in 1994 and began publishing books in 2001 under the direction of Tatiana Zúñiga Góngora and Manuel Arias Silveira. The press is in Holguín, on the opposite end of the island from Havana. Cuadernos Papiro (whose name translates as papyrus notebooks or papyrus quartos) makes all its own paper from recycled materials. Its founders obtained a linotype machine so they could print all their books with lead type. A dedication to obsolete equipment is central to Papiro’s vision. Most of Papiro’s books are illustrated with relief prints, most often linocuts and collagraphs.
4 by 5-1/2 inches. Twenty pages, printed offset in letterpress covers. Open edition. Each recipe (for the cuba libre, daiquiri, mojito, Mary Pickford, etc.) is presented in English and Spanish. While not attributed to Cuadernos Papiro, these books were offered for sale at their stall at the Havana Book Fair in 2014.....
[13] leaves. 6-1/2 by 7-3/4 inches. Edition size not noted. A small chapbook of poems from writers from a village about 20 miles from Matanzas. The poems are mimeographed from typescript with vignettes by Rolando Estévez. The cover and the four illustrations are handcolored with quick strokes of single colors.....
59 pages. 7-1/4 inches in diameter, plus a leaf outcrop. An edition of 200 copies. This issue of the Ed. Vigía magazine for children has a shaped cover in the form of an orange (about 7-1/2 inches in diameter). The text is poems photocopied onto various types of paper, mostly.....
[87] pages. 11-1/4 by 8-1/4 (oblong). An edition of 200 copies. This issue of the Ediciones Vigía magazine for children has, on the front cover, a scene of a person in a row boat reading. The back cover shows the same person sleeping in the boat. The design, assembled from.....
[20] pages. 10-3/4 by 8 inches (oblong). An edition of 200 copies. Mimeographed on low quality paper and papel de estraza (made from sugar cane waste), with handcolored illustrations and collage elements. The pergaminito (the small, folded broadside included in many issues) is an unattributed short poem, "Mi abuelo guamba".....
[32] pages. 10 by 8-1/4 inches (oblong). An edition of 200 copies. Mimeographed on low quality paper and papel de estraza (made from sugar cane waste), with handcolored illustrations and collage elements. The pergaminito (the small, folded broadside included in many issues) is a short poem about Don Quixote and.....
10 leaves. 10-1/2 by 8-1/2 (oblong), trimed into an eight-sided shape. Edition of 200 copies. Mimeographed on low quality paper and papel de estraza (made from sugar cane waste), with handcolored illustrations; the cover is decorated with crepe paper and a cord made from shredded cloth. With a pergaminito (small.....
11 leaves. 6 by 8 inches. Edition size not indicated. Colección Grillo. Poems and drawings mimeographed on low quality paper and papel de estraza (made from sugar cane waste). Most leaves have handcoloring; the illustrations are by a child, Igorcito Rodríguez. The covers are plain brown paper with a very.....
[14] leaves. 6 by 8 inches. Edition size not noted. Lyrics to songs, apparently to be performed at the first Festival de la Nueva Canción in Matanzas, Cuba. The lyrics are mimeographed on one side of each leaf of various types of low-quality paper. The author and the performer of.....
11 sheets, 6-3/4 by 11-3/4 inches, in a 12-1/2 by 11 inches. Published in an edition of 100 copies. Each sheet offers a traditional Cuban recipe printed letterpress on handmade paper. The recipes are inserted into a shaped folder reminiscent of a basket with a thick string handle, a mounted.....
51 pages. 6 by 9-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. A collection of about 30 recipes, the first half appear to be Catalan dishes as they are presented in Catalan and Spanish translation; the last section appears to be Cuban recipes as these are offered only in.....
20 leaves printed on one side only (rectos). 8-1/4 by 10-3/4 inches. Edition size not noted. A collection of poems by writers from around Cuba, all written in praise of Hugo Chávez and Venezuela. The cover design by Freddy García Azze is a serigraph based on photographs that combines a......
10 leaves. 10-1/2 by 16-3/4 inches. One of 50 copies. The third (?) edition of this anthology of poems about Holguín, each with a distinct design. The poems included are "De mi ciudad" by Lalita Curbelo Barberán; "La ciudad" by Gilberto González Seik; "Calles de la infancia" by Mayda Pérez.....
93 pages. 10 by 12-1/2 inches. An edition of 200. The first issue of the literary journal of Ediciones Vigía, which opens with the manifesto for the press. The Revista, which continues to this day, offers typical content for a literary magazine—principally poetry and prose from a variety of writers.....
89 pages. 9-3/4 by 12-3/4. Edition of 200 copies. The third issue of the Ediciones Vigía literary journal and one of the most ambitious publications to that time by the group. The text, reproduced from typescript, is mimeographed onto many kinds of low-quality paper, illustrated with full-page reproductions of drawings.....
154 pages. 9-1/2 by 12 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Photocopied on white paper with dense black borders; illustrated ink-heavy abstract line drawings by Rolando Estévez. The "Encuentro, Memoria, Amor" issue, edited by Augustina Ponce, Gladys Mederos, and Rolando Estévez. At the front and back of the journal are.....
124 pages. 9-1/2 by 12 inches. An edition of 200 copies. An illustrated literary journal with prose and poetry, including contributions by Mabel Cuesta and José Kozer. The featured writer is the Havana painter and writer Loló Soldevilla (1901–1971), with a few excerpts of her prose and many reproductions of.....
141 pages. 9 by 11-1/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. A double issue of this literary journal with Mabel Cuesta as guest editor. Text photocopied on white paper. The pergamino (folded broadside) included in this issue is a previously unpublished poem ("Cocodrilo") by Lorenzo García Vega. The design and.....
127 pages. 8-1/2 by 11-1/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. The cover design incorporates a zipper and collage elements, including a cut-out image of a printing press. This issue, designed by Johann E. Trujillo, is devoted to the post-modernist poet Agustín Acosta (Matanzas 1886–Miami 1979). The pergamino (folded broadside).....
89, [8] pages. 9-1/2 by 12-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. The Ed. Vigía literary magazine. Mimeographed from typescript with full-page illustrations all on papel de estraza (paper made from sugarcane waste). Most illustrations with collage elements and handcoloring. The pergamino (folded broadside) is a poem by Cintio Vitier.....
87 pages. 9-1/4 by 11-3/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. The Ediciones Vigía literary magazine. Mimeographed from typescript with full-page illustrations all on papel de estraza (paper made from sugarcane waste). For this issue, a collection of labels from a 19th century Matanzas pharmacy were reproduced as facsimiles and.....
103 pages. 9-1/2 by 11-3/4 inches. One of 200 copies.
An issue of the illustrated literary journal of Ediciones Vigía with poems and prose from a variety of authors. The pergamino (folded broadside) is a poem by Antón Arrufat. The text is photocopied onto white paper. Fine.
Six booklets, each a single sheet folded to make four pages, laid into a handmade-paper folder with a bellyband. 6-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. Edition size not stated. Each booklet is printed letterpress in a different color of ink. The text of each piece includes the name of the spirit and.....
Six booklets, each a single sheet folded to make four pages, laid into a printed handmade-paper folder. 7-1/2 by 9-1/4 inches. Edition size not stated. Each booklet, devoted to a single Santeria spirit, is printed letterpress in a distinct color of ink. The inside text describes the spirit, with its.....
[20] leaves. 7-3/4 by 9-1/2 inches. An edition of 100 copies. Fourth (?) edition, printed letterpress on handmade paper. This is one of Cuadernos Papiro's most popular titles, which the press has reprinted a number of times in different formats. This version is in standard book form, with descriptions of.....