To tell stories we delve into our memories, our past experiences, into other stories, from other times. We turn to our imaginations, we learn from the imaginations of others. We remember the stories we were told as children, that our perhaps were told to our elders when they were children, and to their elders when they were children.

Making an artist book is one way of telling a story. In April, I will be giving a two day course at La Cala titled El libro de artista (The Artist Book). During the course we will explore the art of creating books by looking, touching and making.

If we can say that human life begins at the origin, we can equally say that it ends with the dance of death.

While collecting material to make the images for the book Este cuerpo es humano · This Body is Human and to write this post, I found it interesting to see how despite the underlying taboos of talking about death, so many cultures share a pictorial identity of representing it. It seems poking fun at our mortality is a very common way of facing it.

The human body begins at the origin.
Unlike most anatomical atlases I had come across growing up, this text celebrates the sexual organs, describing them without any trace of shame or modesty. Instead of being safely tucked away in the back of the book as an afterthought, or hidden within the many chapters describing various body parts, organs and systems; in this book, the sexual organs are showcased in the very first pages.

When asked to make the images of Este cuerpo es humano · This Body is Human, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t make a single sketch or image. I waited. It turns out waiting is also a way of working, who knew?
While waiting, I thought a lot about the human body in general, then I thought about my body. I read the texts of the book over and over again.

Making the images for the book Este cuerpo es humano · This Body is Human was a wonderful surprise. It is a poetic atlas of scientific anatomy for both children and adults. When I first read the text written by (Carlos) Grassa Toro I fell in love with it, because of its joy and joked about wanting to do the images if ever the book was published again.

There are many exciting things going on at the moment that are keeping me up at night.
They also wake me up at the wee hours of the morning to stitch, embroider, paint, and write about.
The first on of these things, is the launch of Biblioteca La Cala, a collection of publications born in a space dedicated to artistic creation.