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.
21 pages. 7 by 10 inches, plus outcrops. An edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A collection of poems by a Cuban-Czech computer programmer who worked for several publishers in Matanzas. The manuscript won the 2011 Premio Digdora Alsonso. This book is one of the more elaborate Ediciones Vigía.....
Bolívar Aróstegui, Natalia and Natalia del Río Bolívar
119 pages. 11-1/4 by 7-1/2 inches. Published in an edition of 200 numbered copies. Colección Venablos series. One of the more compelling post-Estévez Vigía books. A book of literary criticism about the Cuban ethnographer Lydia Cabrera, with examples of folklore she collected (some apparently previously unpublished), with a glossary of orisha and.....
[16] leaves, mimeographed on one side only. 6-1/4 by 8-1/4 inches. An edition of 100 copies. Colección del San Juan. Poetry from a Matanzas writer who won the Premio América Bobia for this collection in 1988. The colophon of the book is dated both 1988 and 1989. It seems most.....
50 pages (even pages are blank). 5-7/8 by 7-7/8 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Poems mimeographed from typescript and illustrated with reproductions of 19th century labels from a Matanzas pharmacy. The use of labels as illustrations is a good example of the press's intense local focus.....
10 leaves, printed on one side only but numbered to 19. 8-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. An essay about the Argentinean author's grandmother and other women who influenced her. Mimeographed text, with paper collage elements and handcoloring. Designed and illustrated by Violeta Naranjo with.....
97 pages. 8-1/4 by 11 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Premio. A study of a Cuban woman who published her memoirs in the late 1920s and whose writings offer considerable insight into upper class intellectual life in Matanzas in the decades around 1900. This book won the Premio de.....
87 pages. 9 by 9-1/4 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Poems printed on unbleached recycled paper, illustrated by Rolando Estévez with many reproductions of a series of drawings of figures in silhouette in front of a masonry wall. In his artist's note at the back, Estévez.....
62 pages. 7-1/2 by 7 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. This is a beautiful handmade book that displays Ediciones Vigía's fierce interest in the local, incorporating the work of many Matanzas-area artisans who work with found materials from the region. A collection of poems photocopied on white.....
Caluff Pagés, Bertha (text); illustrations by Enelio Suárez
Horizontal pergamino (folded broadside or plegable). 37 by 9-3/4 inches, unfolded. Edition size not noted. In the 1980s, many of the items produced by Ediciones Vigía were announcements for events in Matanzas. This is a particularly elaborate example, with the thick Kraft paper extending nearly a meter in length. Glued.....
26 leaves, mimeographed on one side only. 8-1/2 by 12-1/2 inches. Edition size not noted. A want-list of the virtually unobtainable, the earliest, most ephemeral items from the press. This bibliography includes a chronological list of Ediciones Vigía' first 65 publications, issued in just three years, along with a history of the.....
43 leaves, printed on one-side only. 8-1/4 by 12-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A collection of youth poetry mimeographed from typescript. The author and title of each piece is mimeographed on a small piece of Kraft paper and mounted at the head of each poem.....
4 pages. 6-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. Edition size not stated. A short essay on a landscape painting by Tarasco published as an information pamphlet when the work was a featured object at the Museo Municipal in Matanzas. A small black-and-white reproduction of the painting is mounted on the front cover.....
11 leaves, including covers. About 15 by 13 inches. Limited to 100 copies. Printed letterpress from type set on a Linotype machine on various handmade papers and bound with shoelaces. Illustrated with two linoleum block prints and a collagraph (using lace as the printing substrate) by José Emilio Leyva Azze.....
62, [8] pages. 7 by 9-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Venablos. Brief essays on language, originally published in the 1950s in the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional. This may be the first book publication of these essays on visual and performing arts, which were part of a decade-long.....
Five sheets, each 6-3/4 by 11-1/4 inches, laid into a sleeve measuring 7-3/4 by 11-3/4 inches. One of 50 copies. A special publication to commemorate Fidel Castro's eightieth birthday. There are four poems about Fidel and a title page, printed letterpress on handmade paper. The sleeve is handpainted and shaped.....
First Edition. 7 leaves. 14 by 10-3/4 inches (oblong). An edition of 100 copies. Letterpress text of two chapters of Don Quixote, printed in two columns on handmade paper. The covers are made from dyed paper collaged around blind-embossed designs by the sculptor Silvio Leonardo Pérez Carralero. OCLC: IXA FQG.....
Colón, Cristóbal [Columbus, Christopher]; edited by Miguel A. Esquivel Pérez and Cosme Casals Corella
51 pages. 6-1/2 by 9 inches. Colophon with a printed limitation of 150 copies. A critical transcription of Christopher Columbus's journal entries regarding his time in Cuba with words and phrases crossed out by hand to indicate the corrections made by Bartolome de las Casas. This selection from Columbus's "Derrotero.....
13-1/2 by 17 inches. 12 leaves. An edition of 100 copies. Poems printed letterpress on one side of the paper only. Several types of paper are used, including sheets made from recycled Communist party newspapers. José Emilio Leyva Azze illustrates Coscia's poems with linocuts, blind embossed images, shaped newspaper collages, and.....
13-1/2 by 17 inches. 12 leaves. An edition of 100 copies. Poems printed letterpress on one side of the paper only. Several types of paper are used, including sheets made from recycled Communist party newspapers. José Emilio Leyva Azze illustrates Coscia's poems with linocuts, blind embossed images, shaped newspaper collages.....
33 pages. 7-1/4 by 10 inches plus outcrops. One of 200 copies. Colección Barquitos. A collection of poems photocopied onto white paper. The poems are alternately by mother (Bárbara) and daughter (Patricia). Designed and illustrated by Marialva Ríos. For the covers, Ríos employs collage elements, handcoloring, various types of paper.....
21 pages. 7 by 14 inches. Edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A collection of poems bound in handcolored wrappers cut out in the shape of a bird. Each copy includes a laid in faux passport for the "República del Mundo." The text and illustrations are photocopies on.....
92 pages. 7-1/4 by 9-1/2 inches. Colección Trébol. One of 200 copies. A collection of short stories photocopied from computer typescript onto white paper. The title of each story is printed on green handcolored paper affixed a reproduction of handwritten text. The cover design incorporates a paper sculpture of the.....
67 pages. 10 by 8-1/2 inches (oblong). Edition of 200 copies. Colección Aforos. A short play for children inspired by Alice in Wonderland, with an introduction by the author and commentaries by various writers. The text is photocopied onto white paper with handcolored collage illustrations by Zenén Calero Medina. There.....
136 pages. 7-3/4 by 9-3/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. A collection of short stories illustrated by Abdel de la Campa Escaig with drawings and collages. The text and illustrations are printed on brown recycled paper. OCLC: BNCJM DEIAI EEM EYM FQG FXG LRU NDD NOC PAU.....
11 leaves, printed on one side only. 6 by 8 inches. Edition of 100 copies. Colección del San Juan. Typically books in the San Juan collection are poetry; this however is a short story or perhaps a chapter from a longer work. The text is mimeographed on estraza (sugarcane waste).....