Looks Good on Paper from Pyramid Atlantic

This book is a space to Puerto Ricans to reconnect with their ancestry, to gain the strength and grace to deal with the new ways of colonization and gentrification currently affecting the island. The reader as the character of this book seeks to decolonize their own mentality and history to find their own grace without depending on Christianity, the religion of the colonizer.

This book opens a space for an Areyto, a ceremony that offers healing, rooted in the land. The title of the book represents the land itself providing the strength needed, while detaching from grief, a feeling of inferiority, and colonial control. Canalización translates as the act of channeling andBorikén orBoriquén is the aboriginal name for Puerto Rico.

Canalización Ancetral de Borikén, Areyto de liberación is a space for
liberation and healing in book form. An edition of 22 books. The structure is a link stitch with handmade orange paper as covers, that have been burnished to resemble the color of
annatto, an ancestral seed found in tropical regions and often used for cooking and coloring food. The images are printed from photopolymer plates and the endsheets are pressure prints of a healing-gauze paper found in the center spread of the book. The type is Spectrum and the handmade paper produced by the artist is a mixture of flax, unbleached abaca, and cotton.

My artistic practice focuses on my experiences as an islander, the good and the bad, the joys and hurricanes that come with living in Puerto Rico. Through my art I explore my ancestry, the concept of healing and identity, the decolonization of the Latin American mind, and the exploration of energetic bodies that are not visible. Book Arts and handmade paper have allowed me to manipulate aspects of my pieces from the beginning and in conversation with the material, giving me the opportunity to carry out research and experiments with my materials until I reach the aesthetics and form that I desire. Harvesting, cooking, sewing, ripping, stretching and natural dyeing are some of the processes that I incorporate the most in my works as I focus on the qualities of the fiber, the textile, the written and visual language and the book form in its whole.