Genesis and Exodo (Exodus). Two Volumes

Buenos Aires: Ediciones Dos Amigos, 2001. One of 40 copies, all on Velin d'Arches paper, signed by Alicia Scavino in pencil on the last print in GENESIS. Page size: 12-3/4 inches x 9-3/4 inches; 84pp; and 72pp; respectively. Bound: each book loose in original drab wrappers, GENESIS with an original engraving consisting of green, ochre, brown arabesques with title in black on front and back panels; EXODO with the title printed in red on front panel and in Hebrew in buff above the Spanish, housed in tan paper over boards clamshell box with title in black on spine, fine. Etchings and aquatints in GENESIS by Alicia Scavino, signed by the artist on the final plate of GENESIS. Etchings and aquatints in EXODO by Mirta Kupferminc. Hand set and printed letterpress in 12pt. Electra by Ruben R. Lapolla, the edition was supervised by Samuel Cesar Palui and Ernesto Lowenstein. These two companion volumes are extremely beautiful and evocative of the creation and deliverance stories. These books were featured in an exhibition at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design - "Sacred Text / Contemporary Form: Spiritual Traditions in the Digital Age."
Ediciones Dos Amigos, probably the finest letterpress publisher working in Latin America today, comes out of the long tradition of the English private press movement and the French Livre d'Artiste. Combining original prints from contemporary Argentinian artists with texts from the Holy Bible enables the publishers to, as Decherd Turner wrote in an essay on this press, "project an explosive vitality. The text and art have such energy that one would never think "imperial" or "democrat" for "Dos Amigos" books have far too much power ever to be encompassed by such terms. Boundaries fall away, the books reach out to evoke the whole range of human emotions.