LOS NOPALES Y LAS TUNAS
LIMITED EDITION ARTIST BOOK · EDITION OF 10
Los Nopales y Las Tunas is a limited-edition handmade artist book created through a period of listening, observing, gathering, and developing a relationship with the land.
In late September, as summer began to give way to the movement of the seasons, I gathered tunas, the fruit of the nopal, and transformed their color into handmade ink.
The nopal became both subject and collaborator.
Through drawing, poetry, natural pigment, and imprint, the pages became a way of remembering the land and tracing the invisible relationships between our bodies and the places that sustain us.
The work considers the body not as separate from the land, but as part of its veins and arteries. A relationship of interconnection. 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.
THE ARTIST BOOK
Each copy contains original drawings, poetry, handmade marks, and impressions created in response to the nopal, the land, and the changing seasons.
This is not a reproduction of a single original book. Each copy is individually handmade and carries its own variations, making every book a unique work within the edition.
The book is designed to be held, opened, read, observed, and lived with.
EDITION OF 10
This work is limited to 10 handmade copies.
Each book belongs to the same edition while retaining individual variations created through the handmade process.
Edition: 1–10
Format: Handmade artist book
Size: 8.5 × 11 inches
Materials: Handmade paper, amate paper, natural nopal/tuna pigment, handmade ink
Contents: Original drawings, poetry, marks, and impressions
Cover: Handmade amate paper
Cover variations: Brown or Pinto Beige
Created by: Calle Soledad Presa
HANDMADE COVER VARIATIONS
AMATE · BROWN
A natural amate paper cover with an earthy brown presence. The visible fibers and irregularities of the paper connect the book to the material qualities of handmade bark paper.
AMATE · PINTO BEIGE
A natural beige cover with brown variations inspired by the colors and marks gathered from the land. Each cover is individually made, so color, texture, and surface will vary.
NATURAL PIGMENT FROM THE NOPAL
The color used within the work was developed from tunas, the fruit of the nopal.
The transformation of fruit into handmade ink became part of the artistic process itself: gathering, preparing, making, marking, and recording.
The pigment is therefore not simply a color applied to the page. It is part of the material relationship explored by the book.
A NOTE ABOUT THE EDITION
Because every copy is handmade, no two books are exactly alike.
Variations in pigment, paper, impressions, marks, fibers, color, and cover texture are intentional characteristics of the work.
Each copy is an individual object within the edition.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Los Nopales y Las Tunas is part of the ongoing bookmaking practice of Diana Lizette Rodriguez and Calle Soledad Presa, an experimental press exploring handmade books, natural pigments, paper, poetry, material histories, and relationships between the body and the natural world.
The work considers the book as more than a container for text or images. It can become a witness, an archive, an offering, and a physical record of a relationship with place.
Gracias por ver.
Gracias por escuchar.
Gracias por oír.
