Los Nopales y Las Tunas
Limited Edition Handmade Artist Book | Artist Book | Book Art | Natural Pigment
Los Nopales y Las Tunas is a limited edition handmade artist book created through a period of listening, observing, and developing a relationship with the land.
In late September, as summer began to disappear into the movement of seasonal cycles, I gathered tunas, the fruit of the nopal, and transformed their color into handmade ink.
I listened. I watched.
Through drawing, poetry, natural pigment, and imprint, the pages became a way of remembering the land and tracing the invisible threads that connect our bodies to the places that sustain us.
The nopal became a witness and a teacher: rooted in the earth, carrying fruit, enduring, giving, and renewing.
The work considers the body not as separate from the land, but as part of its veins and arteries. A relationship of interconnectivity. A relationship of giving and receiving.
Rezos y rezos.
A prayer for the ancestor.
A prayer for death and renewal.
A prayer for the spines of the prickly pear that rupture the skin of our palms and open us toward another language, beyond.
Each artist book contains original drawings, poetry, handmade marks, and impressions created in response to the land, the nopal, and the changing seasons.
This is a limited edition of 10 handmade artist books, created as individual works of book art. Each copy carries the marks and variations of the handmade process.
Handmade Cover Variations
Amate Cover: Brown
A natural amate paper cover with an earthy brown presence, connecting the book to the material traditions and textures of handmade paper.
Amate Cover: Pinto Beige
A natural pinto beige with brown variations inspired and gathered from the land. Each cover is individually made and carries its own variations in texture, color, and mark.
Details
- Limited edition of 10
- Handmade artist book
- Original drawings and poetry
- Natural nopal / tuna pigment
- Handmade ink
- Handmade paper and amate cover
- Hand-applied marks and impressions
- Two handmade cover variations
- Each copy is unique
- Created by Calle Soledad Presa
- 8.5x11
Los Nopales y Las Tunas is an artist book to be held, opened, read, observed, and lived with.
An offering to the land, memory, ancestry, and the invisible threads that connect us.
Gracias por ver.
Gracias por escuchar.
Gracias por oír.
