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.
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.....
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.....
79 pages. 6-1/2 by 8-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. A substantial collection of poems, most written in the 1990s. Designed and illustrated by Ariel López. The text is photocopied onto tan recycled paper with printed borders and full-page illustrations between the sections. The covers are.....
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.....
Pergamino (folded broadside). 7 by 34 inches, unfolded. Edition size not noted. [Colección Clásicos]. This pergamino has three sections, the title, illuminated with white and yellow paint; the text of the poem, mimeographed from typescript in the center; and an image of an angel at the bottom. The design is.....
11-1/4 by 18 inches.
A poster for the press, consisting of repeated images of lamps, palm trees, and addresses.
An uncommon piece of ephemera. Minor loss to one edge; with a few old folds.
Fifteen booklets, 5-7/8 by 8-5/8 inches, with a cover sheet, laid into a box made of cardboard covered with decorated paper. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. This work consists of short stories, in Spanish, by fourteen writers of Jewish or Arab descent, each printed as a separate chapbook.....
14 pages. 6-1/4 by 8-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del Estero. Poems, photocopied on white paper, with illustrations photocopied on Kraft paper. The cover has a sundial design with a cardboard gnomon rising vertically from the front. A handcolored cardboard sun has a rock, painted white, mounted on.....
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.....
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......
36 pages. 10 by 8 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Barquitos. A collection of short poems appropriate for children, photocopied on recycled brown paper. Illustrated inside and on the covers by Zenén Calero Median with handcolored collaged drawings with a maritime theme. OCLC: BMA BNCJM CRU CUI CUZ DEIAI.....
58 pages. 5 by 8-3/4 inches laid into an enclosure measuring 9-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches. An edition of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. A striking feminist artist's book. A collection of 17 connected stories or vignettes in which the narrator describes the daily disrespect, discrimination, and violence she faces as a woman.....
145 pages plus a fold-out section of text mounted to one page. 5-1/2 by 8 inches in an enclosure measuring 7 by 7-1/2 inches at its widest points. An edition of 200 copies. No colección noted. Introduction by Olga Lidia Sosa Rodríguez. This might be considered an example of the.....
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.....
108 pages. 9-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Aforos. A particularly interesting Ediciones Vigía book. A play, set in Havana on New Year's Eve, photocopied onto white bond paper. The plot involves money and a gun, and the design reflects these elements. Eight pages at the front.....
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.....
One horizontal sheet folded to make four leaves. 10 by 26 inches, folding down to 7-1/2 inches. Edition of 100 copies. Colección del San Juan. A horizontal pergamino (folded broadside) printed with a poem in three columns mimeographed from calligraphy. The cover is black paper decorated with the figure of a......
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.....
9-1/4 by 5-3/4 inches (envelope). One of 200 copies. Colección Clásicos. Three poems, mimeographed from typescript on tan recycled paper, with a mimeographed cover sheet, in a printed envelope. The poems are folded twice and open to 8-3/4 by 10-1/2 inches; the cover sheet is 8-1/4 by 4-3/4 inches. The.....
15 pages. 6 by 9 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección del San Juan. Winner of the Premio América Bobia 2012. Text photocopied on white paper with illustrations by Marialva Ríos. The front cover is cutout in the shape of buildings and a fish head, revealing portions of a handpainted.....
175 pages. 7 by 9-1/2 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Trébol. Introduction by Zaida Capote Cruz. Translated from the Italian by Dulce María Loynaz. This is a Spanish translation of the Italian novel Ella non rispose (1914), which Loynaz worked on between 1938 and 1941 and left unpublished at.....
103, [4] pages. 7 by 9 inches. One of 200 copies. No colección noted. A rather curious—for Ediciones Vigía—first person collection of philosophical musings. Printed on white paper, with pasted-on chapter titles and reproductions of line drawings as illustrations. The covers have vibrant handcolored collages. Designed and illustrated by Manuel.....
109 pages. 7 by 9-3/4 inches. One of 200 copies. Colección Barquitos. A collection of poems appropriate for children written by 43 women writers. The text is printed on white paper. There are collaged and handcolored illustrations at the front and back of the book and on the covers. The.....
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.....
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.....