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.
A pergamino subcategory that Ediciones Vigía refers to as a "cartucho", a Cuban term to refer to flat paper bags used to deliver products; in this case 10 broadsides laid into a brown paper bag. Sheets 6 by 8 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección not noted. One of the.....
113 pages. 6-3/4 by 8-3/4 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Paseo. Poems and prose by 20th-century authors mimeographed from typescript on coarse brown paper. The book is illustrated with decorated green and white paper cutouts as well as mounted photocopies of photographs by Olivia Manning, printed by Editorial Praxis.....
4 leaves. 7-1/2 by 10 inches. One of 8 copies. One of the first books by Rolando Estévez after he left Ediciones El Vigía to form Ediciones El Fortín. The text is a single poem by the Costa Rican writer, in Spanish and English translation by Ruth Behar. The poem.....
Two leaves. 4-1/2 by 10-1/4 inches. One of 50 copies. Colección Río Mar. Two poems by the Jewish American poet (born in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1941) printed on a single sheet in English and a Spanish translation by Ruth Behar. Behar, a Jewish Cuban American scholar and writer, has.....
4-3/4 by 7-3/4 inches. 171 pages. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. A translation of Am Rand der Tage: Poesie da Calendario by María Elena Blanco. These short poems are printed on one side only of leaves of brown recycled paper. The even pages in the book are blank.....
37 pages. 7-1/4 by 12 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Barquitos. Seven poems and four rondas (rounds, or rotas, in English) written for children. Exuberantly handcolored throughout. Text digitally printed on white paper with Kraft paper dividers. A short poetic broadside in the shape of an owl is.....
4 sheets, each folded to make four pages. 5-1/4 by 8 inches. Edition size not stated, but ca. 100 copies. Each of the small booklets have the title, author, and publisher letterpress printed on the front panel and a Lezama Lima poem printed in red on the inside. The printed.....
[14] pages. 7-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches. An edition of 100 copies. A lovely poetry chapbook, printed letterpress and illustrated with color collagraphs (relief prints made from objects) by Julio Méndez Rivero. The colors used on the covers vary from copy to copy. OCLC: BNCJM FQG IND NOC VWM. Near fine.....
29 pages, plus an attached pergamino (scroll) illustration. 7-1/2 by 11 inches; the scroll unrolls to 6-1/2 by 18 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Odios falsos is both a significant literary work and an important marker in the development of Ediciones Vigía and Rolando Estévez as.....
Pergamino. Approximately 9 by 115 inches, assembled from many sheets of paper. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de la Concordia. Designed and illustrated by Rolando Estévez. This pergamino consists of a single scroll formed from joined sheets of white bond paper printed with the text of the poem "Eternidad," reproduced.....
21 pages. 5-3/4 by 11-3/4 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. The program and text of a dramatic performance of this Loynaz poem by Sahily Moreda. Rolando Estévez designed the sets. The text is mimeographed; the design and illustrations are by Estévez. Loynaz (1902–1997) was a poet.....
Pergamino. Folder measures 5 by 7-3/4 inches. A Christmas greeting in the form of a card designed and illustrated by Rolando Estévez. The cover shows Mary (the mother of Jesus) knitting with a piece of yarn affixed to the cover. The inside front cover depicts the baby Jesus surrounded by.....
16 pages. 7-1/2 by 12 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. A single long poem photocopied on white paper. The illustrations, which incorporate images of the god Pan along with pieces of wood and twine, are by Johann E. Trujillo. The covers are thin wooden boards mounted.....
58 pages. 6-3/4 by 9 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. A collection of poems photocopied on white paper with Kraft paper dividers and many collage illustrations by Rolando Estévez. The "about the author page" is folded and shaped like a handkerchief and it is inserted into a......
Pergamino (folding broadside) with a cord for hanging. 11 by 41 inches, unfolded. One of 200 copies, signed by the author. Colección del San Juan (?). A poem inspired by the Beatles song of the same name mimeographed from typescript on several attached sheets. Marimón a poet from Matanzas and.....
A single stiff sheet covered in textured paper and folded three times. 5 by 9-1/2 inches when closed. An edition of 200 numbered copies. Colección Andante series. The text is Bob Marley's "Redemption Song" in English and Spanish translation. The construction, designed by Marialva Ríos, is made of paper, cloth.....
Broadside. 9 by 21 inches; folded to 4-1/2 by 5-1/4 inches and housed in a handmade paper box. One of 200 numbered copies. Colección Inicios series. Marruz is a noted Cuban poet; this book was published to honor her during the 2014 Semana del Autor, hosted by the Casa de.....
29 pages. 6-3/4 by 11 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Clásicos. This book reprints several of Martí's best-known poems in Spanish, followed by the same poems in an uncredited English translation. The book is designed and illustrated by Marialva Ríos. The cover is three-dimensional, with a black-and-white portrait of.....
44 pages. 6-1/4 by 10 inches. An edition of 1500 copies. Colección Graff. An edition of some of Martí's most popular poems, which were first published in New York in 1882. This edition, co-issued by two Matanzas publishers, is described on the colophon as an "industrial y artesanal" book. Indeed.....
[6] leaves, printed on one side only (rectos). 9-1/4 by 12 inches. One of 100 copies. An English translation of the children's fable "Nené traviesa." The translation seems to be that of Elinor Randall found on the Marxists Internet Archive. The text is printed letterpress on handmade paper. The cover.....
[13] leaves. 9 by 12-1/2 inches. Edition size not indicated. A collection of Martí's verse in an uncredited English translation. This is an atypical English-only Papiro book. The book is printed and bound using three kinds of handmade recycled paper. The title of each poem is printed on brown estraza.....
23 leaves plus covers. 9-1/4 by 14-1/4 inches. An edition of 100 copies. One of the outstanding artist's books from Cuadernos Papiro. Poems, printed letterpress on various types of handmade paper, including leaves of recycled papers and papers dyed with tobacco. The text is interleaved with multimedia illustrations by Javier.....
31 pages. 6-3/4 by 12 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Poems photocopied on brown paper. Designed and illustrated by Johann E. Trujillo. The paper covers are sewn Japanese style and are decorated with paper collage elements. The main illustration is a cutout of a tree with.....
Pergamino (folded broadside). 8-3/4 by 10-1/2 inches, unfolding to 40 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A poem broadside assembled from several mimeographed sheets of Kraft paper with both ragged and sculpted edges. There are illustrations and a decorative border, with some handcoloring, as well as mimeographed.....
35 pages. 8-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Venablos. Art and literary criticism about Angel Gaztelu, a Catholic priest who ran in literary and artistic circles in Havana. He brought contemporary Cuban art into churches and was a contributor to the important literary journal "Orígenes." This.....