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.
[10] pages, plus an audio DVD. About 8-1/2 inches square. An edition of 100 copies. Colección Andante. Lyrics for a song photocopied on brown recycled paper. Designed by Elizabeth Valero and bound in crumpled paper and fabric over cardboard. The DVD has one short musical track. OCLC: DEIAI FQG FXG.....
A pergamino (folded broadside). 8-1/2 by 5-3/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Andante. A four-page photocopied reproduction of a handwritten score for "La bella cubana", with a short biography of the Afro-Cuban composer born in Matanzas in 1836. He died in Paris in 1918. "La bella cubana", a......
Pergamino structure in a folder. Unfolds to 6-1/2 by 10-1/4 inches. Colección del San Juan. Edition size not noted. A classic Cuban revolutionary text, a heroic poem to Fidel Castro by the most famous of the comandantes of the revolution. The cover design incorporates Castro's face in a tree. The.....
10 pages. 6-1/4 by 8-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A long poem, winner of the Premio América Bobia 2013. The wrappers are covered with cloth and illustrated with cardboard, handcolored paper collage, twine, and a key. Designed and illustrated by Elizabeth Valero. OCLC: BLSTP.....
60 pages. 8-1/2 by 11-1/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Aforos. A play set in 1493 as Christopher Columbus returns to Spain to report on his expedition to the New World. Text photocopied on white paper. The cover is a collage, depicting Columbus, his ship, and a portolan.....
93 pages. 7-3/4 by 10-3/4 inches. Edition of 200 copies. Colección del Estero (cover) and Colección del San Juan (colophon). Poems, photocopied on white paper, with handcolored collaged section dividers. The cover is a collage made from cardboard, several types of cloth, overprinted text, and handcolored paper. Esquivel Guerra is.....
Four-panel accordion structure with two fold-out illustrated pergaminos. Folder, 5-1/2 by 14-3/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Itinerante. A book published to celebrate the 320th anniversary of the founding of Matanzas with historical text and photographs emphasizing Cuba's bridges. A bilingual edition, with text in Spanish and English.....
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.....
[12] pages. 8-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. Edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan (?). A single poem, which won the Premio América Bobia 2014. Illustrated by Johann E. Trujillo with collages. The binding incorporates cardboard at the spine, pieces of wood, and paper collage. Pérez is noted Matanzas poet.....
58 pages. 7-1/2 by 11-1/4 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A collection of poems, photocopied on brown recycled paper, designed and illustrated by Manuel Darío. The cover is a paper collage, handcolored and embellished with thread. OCLC: BNCJM CWR ESAEC EYM FQG FXG HLS IND.....
Four books bound in marbled paper covers; 12, 10, 20, and 16 pages. 8-1/4 by 11-1/4 inches. Publication information printed on a bellyband. The edition size is not stated but was, according to the press, 100 copies. The most ambitious publication from Cuadernos Papiro to date. These poems for children.....
14 by 7 inches (oblong). Edicion size ca. 100 copies. 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.....
8-1/4 by 10-1/2 inches. 22 leaves. Edition of 100 copies. A remarkable artist's book that embodies censorship. This book won the UNEAC prize for poetry in 1968 while still in manuscript. Immediately upon publication, the book was banned and virtually the entire edition was pulped (Worldcat records no copies of the.....
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.....
Hernández, Gerardo; Antonio Guerrero; Ramón Labañino; Fernando González; and René González
54 pages, printed on 27 unbound leaves of handmade paper embedded with flower petals. 8-1/2 by 13 inches. An edition of 250 copies. The text is excerpts of letters sent from the "Cuban 5" to their families. The five men were convicted in Miami of being Cuban spies. They were.....
15 leaves in a shaped enclosure. Largest dimensions, 14 by 11-1/2 inches. Published in an edition of 100 copies. A book in the shape of a hat, with text leaves fitted into a pocket at the top. The text—13 poems, a title sheet, and an about the author page—is letterpress.....
First Edition. 10 leaves plus covers. 8 by 13 inches. One of 100 copies. A long poem printed letterpress on paper handmade, in part, from garlic leaves. The covers each have a unique monoprint by Freddy García Azze, with the back cover the reverse of the front. The design of.....
26 pages. 7-1/2 by 10-1/2 inches. One of 100 copies. Poems and short prose pieces by a Holguín poet, printed letterpress on handmade paper. The paper is embedded with flower petals; the cover of the book is a die-cut linoleum block print of an amphora, printed in red on paper.....
8 leaves plus covers. 8-1/4 by 12-1/2 inches. About 100 copies. Poems by the noted Cuban writer, printed letterpress on handmade paper embedded with flower petals. Covers decorated with original intaglio prints by Freddy García Azze. OCLC: FQG VWM. A near fine copy. This copy has a printed colophon, dated.....
6 leaves of handmade paper string-bound into wrappers with French flaps. 7-1/2 by 11-1/4 inches. One of 100 copies. The paper is handmade and embedded with tobacco-leaf fragments. Fernández Retamar's poems are printed letterpress and illustrated with linocut images of clouds. The wrappers also use a linocut design, stained with.....
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.....
12 leaves of handmade paper, plus covers. 5-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. One of an unknown number of copies, perhaps 200. A collection of poems by a Holguín native, printed letterpress and illustrated with five full-page, multicolor collagraphs by Yunia Pavón Gómez. Bound Japanese-style, with thin cord. A beautifully illustrated book.....
12 by 16 inches. 8 leaves, printed letterpress with red ink. Unlike most Cuadernos Papiro books, this one is printed on both sides of the sheet. An edition of 60 copies. Arrufat is a prolific poet and winner of the Premio Nacional de Literatura de Cuba. The poems printed here.....
7 leaves, plus covers. 9-1/4 by 11-1/4 inches. One of 200 copies. One of the first books of the press, a collection of poems printed letterpress on handmade paper. The decorations are made from thin bits of wood, jute twine, and leaves affixed to the pages and some prints made.....
Two small rolled broadsides in a paper box. The box measures 5-1/2 by 5-1/2 by 1-1/2 inches. One of 100 copies. The two scrolls are printed with the same poem, once in Spanish and again in English translation. Each roll is tied with a ribbon. The colophon is printed and.....