2018 PALABRARMAS – CECILIA VICUÑA

Cecilia Vicuña | AMAzone Palabrarmas | 1977-1978
Artist-book, 200 copies
Risograph print with silkscreen printed jacket
Book design/silkscreen cover by Felipe Mujica and Johanna Unzueta
Poem/drawings by Cecilia Vicuña
Texts by Dieter Roelstraete and Cecilia Vicuña
Printing and binding by Keegan Cooke, The Circadian Press, Brooklyn, NY
March 2018

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In Vicuña’s words: The original book Palabrarmas was born from a vision in which individual words opened up to reveal their inner associations, allowing ancient and newborn metaphors to come to light.

In l966 nearly a hundred of these words appeared. I called them divinations. Then, in l974, they appeared again, arming themselves with a name: palabrarmás (palabra, word; labrar, to work; armas, arms; más, more). A word that means: to work words as one works the land is to work more; to think of what work does is to arm yourself with the vision of words. And more: words are weapons, perhaps the only acceptable weapons.

From “Palabrarmás”, translated by Eliot Weinberger, Fire Over Water, Tanam Press, N.Y. 1986.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition:
Cecilia Vicuña: PALABRARMAS
The Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society
The University of Chicago
March 29 – June 2, 2018
Curated by Dieter Roelstraete

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