** 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 leaves. 6-1/4 by 13 inches. One of 30 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. A poem, in Spanish and English translation, designed and illustrated by the author. Each version of the text is printed on a torn remnant of recycled paper, folded accordion style and glued horizontally to one side.....
11 leaves. 6-1/2 by 14-1/2 inches in a handmade paper bag measuring 12 by 14-1/2 inches. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. Poems in Spanish and English translation by the author photocopied on white paper. The book is illustrated with collage elements and handcoloring. The cover includes shells collected.....
92 pages. 8 by 11-1/2 inches in an 11-1/2 by 14-1/2 inch handmade paper bag decorated with collage elements. Colección Puente de la Concordia. An edition of 50 copies. A collection of poems by Cuban women. The typeset text pages are reproduced by photocopy. Several leaves have handcoloring and collage.....
4 pages (a single, folded sheet) in an envelope. 4 by 5-1/2 inches. The edition size is not stated, but it was perhaps as small as 10 copies. A chapbook with a single short poem, in English and Spanish translation, designed by the author. The poem, titled "The Angel and.....
12 leaves. 8-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches inserted into a handmade paper bag measuring 10 by 14-1/2 inches. Edition of 40 copies. Colección Puente de la Plaza. A collection of poems by Alonso (1921–2007), a noted Matanzas poet and teacher. This collection, designed and illustrated by Rolando Estévez, reproduces Estévez's handwritten.....
[32] pages plus an illustrated pergamino. 6-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches. Edition of 40 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. Poems in Spanish and French translation. Text laserprinted. The book has collage illustrations at the front and back, and long fold-out strips attached to the cover flaps which reveal the name of.....
[11] pages. 7 by 10-1/2 inches, plus outcroppings on the cover. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de la Plaza. A poem, inspired by the author's trip to Mexico, bound in cardboard with a handpainted portrait of the artist Frida Kahlo with added collage elements including cut-outs of painted flowers, a......
Pergamino, unfolding to 48 inches. Edition of 50 copies. Colección Puente de la Plaza. This pergamino, printed with three poems, unfolds to nearly four-feet long, revealing a female nude enclosing a city in her arms. Designed and illustrated by Rolando Estévez. Ediciones Vigía issued this poem as a chapbook in.....
One page (folding). 7-1/2 by 4-1/2 inches. Edition of 50 copies. Published October 11, 2014, soon after Rolando Estévez left Ediciones Vigía to form Ediciones El Fortín. The book is a single poem, reproducing Estévez's calligraphy on white paper. The text sheet is folded several times. The book is illustrated.....
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.....
19 pages. 7-1/4 by 9-3/4 inches. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. The cover includes a naked female doll, described on the colophon as a socialist Barbie made in China ("una barbie socialista realizada en China"). This is a collection of poems in Spanish and English translation, about sexuality and.....
11 handmade sheets in a bag. Sheets measure 7-1/2 by 9-1/2 inches. Edition not stated, but ca. 100 copies. The letterpress printed sheets are wrapped with a bellyband and are laid into a tie-dyed cotton bag (8-1/2 by 13 inches) with a wood grain design by Freddy García Azze of.....
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.....
5 leaves and three pergaminos (two folded, one rolled). 7 by 9-3/4 inches; the folded broadsides unfurl to 72 inches; the scroll unrolls to 23 inches. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. A complex book-object designed by Estévez and Laura Ruiz Montes. It encloses a long poem for.....
2 folded sheets in elaborately decorated paper covers. 7-1/4 by 13-1/4 inches. Edition of just 50 copies. Colección Clásicos. The front cover uses a showgirl design assembled from paper cutouts, feathers, mesh, and string. When the covers are opened, two paper flaps decorated like doors open to reveal nude figures (male.....
5 leaves. 7-3/4 by 10-1/4 inches. One of 50 copies. Colección Puente de Hierro. An artist's book designed by Rolando Estévez and inspired by the poetry of two Latin American Jewish poets. Agosín is a noted Chilean-American writer; Glantz was a Mexican poet who wrote in Yiddish. The text is digitally.....
Pergamino (folded broadside). 7 by 26 inches, folded to 7 by 7 inches. With a cord for hanging and a wrap-around band. An edition of 200 signed copies. A poem, assembled from several mimeographed sheets of papel de estraza (made from sugarcane waste). Designed and illustrated by Hiram Aguiar Hernández.....
Pergamino (folded broadside). 7-1/2 by 7-1/4 inches; unfolding to 33 inches. One of 200 signed and numbered copies. Colección not noted, but del San Juan. An exemplary pergamino from the fifth year of Ediciones Vigía. This broadside offers a poem, mimeographed on several pieces of stiff Kraft paper and assembled.....
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.....
[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.....
55 pages. 7-3/4 by 10-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Poems in Spanish and English translation. The book is designed like a table-top picture frame, with a paper stand on the back so the book stands up on its own. The colophon is printed on.....
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.....
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.....
73 pages plus an audio CD. 8-1/2 by 11 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Andante. An artist's book celebrating music copyists, who are hired to produce neat copies from a composer's or arranger's manuscript, interpreting the composer's intentions. Among the Matanzas musicians highlighted are Sigfrido Anastasio Tortoló Carrillo; Sergio.....
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).....