Other Literature: Jorge Méndez Blake
Result
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[…] me encontré con un bellísimo caos, un fascinante bombardeo de curiosidades, obsesiones, trabajo e invenciones. Había un cúmulo de imágenes evocadoras, un despliegue de referencias, el collage visual de un lector, un artista y un editor que devolvía el significado de años de trabajo a un montón de páginas apuradas por hacerle espacio a su cabeza inquieta.
Me encontré la obsesión de un bibliotecario perfeccionista, aquel que además de gozar los libros y de su lectura, también se concentra en las interminables clasificaciones de los estantes donde viven, que piensa en la tinta que los compone, que puede crear bibliotecas caprichosas, inalcanzables.
–Ekaterina Álvarez, Editora
Other Literature by artist Jorge Méndez Blake is a publication that approaches the subject of the book itself from within the complex field of writing. It is an edition that deals with books, libraries and literature, using its own medium to refer back to itself, forcing the reader to enter—necessarily—into a critical meta-level regarding the letter and the word. Its vision on text and literature is eccentric, operating outside the frameworks of meaning commonly found in books and libraries.
The book is structured across short episodes that tell one or several stories, with an invisible scaffolding holding together the entire narrative and visual discourse; it unfolds under the direction and as the obsession of a perfectionist librarian (Méndez Blake) who, as well as enjoying books and reading, also focuses on the endless classification of shelves where these live and creates whimsical, unattainable libraries.
The challenge was making a text that didn’t seem like an art piece, and an art piece that didn’t seem like text. In response to this challenge we had each piece of content take up its corresponding place, not necessarily in dialogue, but inhabiting this succession of spaces in an orderly way.
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50 Books / 50 Covers
Premio a mejor libro, 2016
Juror Notes
Dynamic, enchanting, full of shifting scales, paper finishes, and fonts that literally cascade over its pages—this book is a celebration of all that a book can be.
—Jessica Helfand
Published by
Ediciones MP
First Edition, 2016
Art Director
Maricris Herrera
Editors
Ekaterina Álvarez
Maricris Herrera
Jorge Méndez Blake
Texts
Sarah Demeuse
Verónica Gerber Bicecci
Luis Felipe Fabre
Geovana Ibarra
Brenda Lozano
Humberto Moro
Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio
Daniela Pérez
Mathew Reynolds
Translations
Inés Bellina
Moisés Silva
Jaime Soler Frost
Copyediting
Cecilia Gandarias
John Z. Komurki
Omegar Martínez
Isabel Orendain
Moisés Silva
Production
This Side Up, Madrid
Printing
Brizzolis, Madrid
Format
Hardcover
408 pages
24.3 x 17.0 cms
Languages
Spanish
English
ISBN
Spanish
978-84-16282-59-3
English
978-84-16282-60-9
Awards
Best Book, 2016
50 Books / 50 Covers
Juror Notes
Dynamic, enchanting, full of shifting scales, paper finishes, and fonts that literally cascade over its pages—this book is a celebration of all that a book can be.
—Jessica Helfand
