The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired twenty-five hand-made books from Ediciones Vigía based in the city of Matanzas to the east of Havana, Cuba. Most have a mimeographed reproduction of a typescript text, wrapped in unique, decorative paper binding. The books are hand-colored, stapled, sewn, glued, folded and in countless other ways constructed into editions of 200, most with a signed colophon.
The Cuban publishing house has been active since 1985 under the artistic direction of Rolando Estévez Jordán and editorial direction of Laura Ruiz. Agustina Ponce serves as the overall director of Ediciones Vigía.
A few of the titles now in the Graphic Arts Collection include Nancy Morejón and Rolando Estévez Jordán, El Río de Martín Pérez y Otros Poemas (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1996); Fernández René and Juan Antonio Carbonell Gómez, La Ikú y Elegguá (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1994) and Rafael Acosta de Arriba and Hiram Aguíar, Los Signos al Infinito: Una Lectura de la Poesía de Octavio Paz (Matanzas, Cuba: Ediciones Vigía, 1992). They will all soon be searchable here.
This video gives you a chance to go inside the artists’ studio in Cuba and see them at work. Well worth the time to watch.
