Books to Be Looked At

This article explores a trend in contemporary Cuban art that takes the book as its subject and object. It attributes the renewed interest to factors ranging from a changing textual environment in public spaces to the rise of digital content to newly re-discovered traditions from historic and neo-avant-gardes, among others. It first maps out a number of new artworks about books, then turns in the second half to focus on two book-based art projects of particular note: La Maleza, an editorial project by Lester Álvarez, and a series of 2015 interventions into Havana's Fayad Jamís bookstore organized by Yornel Martínez, whose own artworks are also analyzed.