A bit of Cuban culture has found its way into the MSU Libraries.
The library’s Special Collections division received 70 books from a Cuban book artist collective earlier this year. Last Tuesday, Jeanne Drewes, the assistant director for access and preservation at MSU Libraries, who donated the books, gave a lecture about the collective and its work.
“I decided to donate them because they are so wonderful and so unique that I thought it would be selfish to keep them to myself,” Drewes said.
“They touch my heart, and I want to share them with other people,” she said.
The books were made by the Ediciones Vigia book artist collective in Matanzas, Cuba, about two hours east of Havana.
Ediciones Vigia, which means “Editions of the Watchtower,” was founded in 1985 to publish the work of writers who were not getting heard.
Each edition has 200 copies and is handmade in an assembly line by members of the collective. The collective publishes about 15 titles a year including a quarterly journal, a children’s journal, children’s books, works of fiction, poetry and scholarly research.
The collective has not published any political writing and so far has been left alone by the Cuban government.
The collective is significant in Cuba because they “continue creative spirit in Cuba that might otherwise be squelched,” Drewes said.
Drewes has been to Cuba to the collective three times. She heard about the artists through a book artist listserv.
On her first trip, she bought $300 worth of books, which sell for $1 to $25. “I was just so taken with these, I thought they were so wonderful,” she said.
The book artists recycle materials and use natural items such as leaves, dirt, seed pods and feathers to decorate the books. Each item is hand-painted, cut out and glued onto each book cover.
During one of her trips, Drewes got to help the collective assemble a book. It was hard work, she said, because “When you’re an assembler, the objective is to make them as much alike as possible.”
The work may be hard, but the workers have fun doing it. The assemblers talk and sing while they are working. Drewes says it’s like a work party.
“I felt a real camaraderie with these people,” she said.
The collective has a revolving door membership of about 15 members, with a core group of about eight that have been with the collective since its founding.
In her donation, Drewes provided for the proper care and preservation of the books. The books are being cataloged and put in custom-made boxes for storage.
The Special Collections division is also hoping to promote the collection through the MSU library Web site, head of Special Collections Peter Berg said.
“I think this is the one of the finest donations since I’ve been here,” Berg said. “They not only have great value as physical artifacts
