Skip to main content
Cuadernos Papiro (Papyrus Papers). Challenge and act of faith
22December
Articles

Cuadernos Papiro (Papyrus Papers). Challenge and act of faith

By Orestes Machín
 

Located in a beautiful historic mansion in Holguin, there is no way to walk around among the antiquated machinery and sheets of paper " still wet " hanging from clotheslines, without having the impression that one has traveled in the machine time.

The editorial Cuadernos Papiro enjoys a distinctive uniqueness for over a decade. Situated in a beautiful house of historic Holguin, there is no way to walk around among the antiquated machinery and damp sheets of paper “still wet” hanging from clotheslines, without having the impression that one has traveled in the time machine, that we are sticking to a corner of Genesis, similar to that inhabited by flamenco Carlos Habré when he printed his Novena (Ninth) and his Tarifa, the two opening pieces of Cuban typography.

This and more is possible to imagine when one enters that willful and joyful space of creativity.

Like any initial dream, it began without resources or infrastructure. Its founders, in the nineties of the last century, committed the beautiful madness of mounting a workshop manufactured paper. Those acute times of crisis required urgent solutions to provide the artists of suitable support for their artwork. Then it began a process of manual, laborious and ecological papermaking. Today, more than forty types of papeblanco are produced, with color and recycled with various fibers that meet the most stringent parameters of quality and resistance. To make this paper a tree is not cut, nature is not damaged.

In 2000 they took advantage of the dismantling of many old printers by technological change that imposed the digital era, and were acquired for the local beautiful machines with American technology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with the dual aim of making books and display them on a rising living museum of graphic arts.

The perfect union between handmade paper and old machinery commissioning thanks to the inexhaustible Creole inventiveness bore Cuadernos Papiro, an imprint that was born under the sign of love, with its first title: Cartas amadas, a collection of letters by Cuban patriots of the wars of independence to their wives.

An overall projection was then formed: A Publisher house and manufactured paper workshop gathered an incredible production cycle. The result is artwork that when opened you go back to the early days of publishing.

With all this, Cuadernos Papiro can not be a regular stamp. This project for the XXI century not only battles to put their books on the market of culture. In addition to an editorial policy, ethics and an "emotional politics" are required in their creations. Its aim is to build “ libros-arte” ("books-art") on handmade papers using printing machines from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and typefaces of the eighteenth century.

The rolls are limited to one hundred numbered copies, and each book is designed by leading artists of the plastic.

What Papiro does then is, at the same time, challenge and act of faith. From its very name it proclaims that the workmanship of craftsmanship and the rigors of the job --- the finish, invoice, paper texture, and originality of a cover design --- are elements that invite reading or may encourage at least a nascent hobby of a collector.

Artists and craftsmen passionate about a project gather under the patronage of some verses by Silvio hanging from the door of the only office in the whole space. "Absurdo suponer que el paraíso es solo la igualdad, las buenas leyes. El sueño se hace a mano y sin permiso, arando el porvenir con viejos bueyes". ("Absurd to suppose that paradise is just equality, good laws. The dream is crafted and without permission, plowing the future with old oxen").

Its aim is to build “libros-arte” ("book-art") on handmade papers using printing machines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and typographies of the XVIII century. The runs are limited to one hundred numbered copies, and each book is designed by leading artists of the plastic.