Iowa City, IA: Canto Press / Iowa Center for the Book, 2020. Paperback. Number 18 of 25 copies of the standard edition. A small deluxe edition of 5 coipes with a fine binding was also issued. Written, designed, and bound by Colombian book artist and conservationist, Maria Carolina Ceballos, at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. A thoughtful and poetic look at book conservation that focuses on the process and the effects the process has on the body of the conservationist and also the reasons for perserving - with an artful incorporation of poetry by Jorge Luis Borges, elements of song, book binding terminology (in English and Spanish), and personal reflections. The text is written a "hybrid-language" of English and Spanish, frequently flipping between the two languages.
Following is an excerpt:
"I fold the paper with my fingers. Doblar, aplanar, doblar, aplanar. It doesn't break, but my fingers do. Pican duelen. Sobre ellos soplo aire frío ... I punch holes in the paper, gently, como cuando de niña, they pierced my ears. - Dos veces - Y así, the paper and I are in a cradle at the moment our skin gets pierced or punched for the first time."
According to the artist: "Un Libro is a book about the experience of being a woman bookbinder, book conservator and Colombian in the US. It has its own language; In the shape of a book, the printed content explains the process of bookmaking and conservation with words, lines of thread, pieces of paper, and lines of text made with pieces of languages. I started writing this book as I was learning bookbinding and working as a book conservation technician. There is a performative act when crafting something, in this case, a book. The book connects with our body by its craft but also by itself. To name a book and its parts, is to recognize ourselves in it, its body is a mirror of ours. My body changes to accommodate the bookbinding practice, and the book changes too, showing itself and its weakness at the conservation lab: books age. The job of a book conservator is my way of taking care of others. I take care of history, memories, imagination and knowledge; all coming from the human body, all engraved in books that, too, live in time and degrade in their many layers of materials. This book is also part of a research about performance in the book arts. As a vocal performer myself, I introduce the voice of the bookbinder and their body in this piece. In terms of performance and notation, this book translates the fineness of the thread to the lightness of dancing bodies and fragmented voices and languages, the hybrid-language writing translates to a fluent constant shift in the interpretation of words."
Bound in printed off white handmade paper covered boards on a slotted tape binding. The cover paper was handmade by the artist. The interior is digitally printed on Classic Crest paper. Housed in a folding blue paper case. [96 pages.] Size: 10 x 7.5 inches.
Maria is a young Colombian book artist with an interdisciplinary focus. She has exhibited her work in various cities in Colombia, the United States and Japan. She received an MFA in Book Arts at the University of Iowa where she worked as a book conservation technician and digital book design instructor. In her recent artistic practice, she has been exploring traditional book related crafts and applying them to a body of work with creative multilingual writing. ARTB/031423. Fine. More