Latin American Handmade Books

Latin American artististic, political, and social movements have led to the creation of a variety of DIY handmade books from throughout the region. Notable examples include cartoneras from Argentina, "Vigías" from Cuba, and contemporary experiments with Indigenous papermaking practices in Mexico.

Collection Overview

Handmade books, commonly called libros-arte in Latin America, have emerged in various moments throughout the region for a variety of reasons. Some, like the artists' books of Ediciones Vigía in Cuba, grew from the need to work outside of the government-sanctioned publishing industry. Others, like cartoneras, appeared in response to the Argentine financial crisis, when artist-activists created their own responses to the conditions they were living under, crafted from discarded cardboard boxes, or "cajas de cartón." DIY artists and writers in other countries took inspiration: Mexico, Brazil, and others now have active cartonera publishers.

Another notable area within the collection of handmade books are the codices made from amate, a specific bark paper utilized by the Indigenous peoples of San Pablito, Mexico since pre-Columbian times. The ones in Penn Libraries' collections were produced in the 1970s and are particularly interesting items because they were created for the simultaneous purpose of revitalizing a heritage craft and to produce income via the tourism market.

Penn Libraries is actively expanding this modest but important collection to support researchers, classes, and students interested in the intersections of text and visual elements in publishing as well as artistic and political movements active outside of the dominant publishing industries throughout Latin America.