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Thriving book arts in Cuba

Since 1985 the home base for Editions Vigia has been la Casa del Escritor de Matanzas (the House of the Writer) in Matanzas, Cuba. La Casa del Escritor functions as a cultural center and institution for the region. They began by publishing flyers and invitations to promote literary and musical events. From this beginning, they began printing literary works by incorporating illustrations and craft pieces.

With limited access to materials, Ediciones Vigía artists utilized kraft paper freely available at shops and produced their pages through the use of mimeograph machines and rudimentary tools. From their editions, limited to 200, they provide a large number of copies to Cuban buyers at minimal cost. They also sell a limited number of each edition to buyers in other countries for hard cash to support future projects. Although their books are not sold in the United States due to the embargo of Cuba, they are avidly collected by individuals, libraries, and museums around the world and in this country. If you would like to see more examples of their work, access the libraries of Yale, University of Missouri, University of Michigan and many others.

We gratefully acknowledge the University of Michigan Library’s website for providing most of this narrative which we have edited for brevity.

David and Carol Farmer