XOCHITL IN CUICATL /FLOWER AND SONG by Rivera, Gustavo Ramos - 1992.: Ten Nahuatl Poems / from Sixteenth Century chronicles / with Monoprints

San Francisco, California:: Aurobora Press,, 1992.. Edition of 25. This suite of ten is issued in a numbered edition of 25, plus two publisher's proofs, one artist's proof, one museum proof, and one archival proof. Total impressions: Thirty suites of 10. This copy is the Artist's Proof. 16.75 x 21.125 x 2" (box), 15.5 x 19.75" (paper); ten folios plus colophon and title page. Ten monoprints hand printed by the artist. Each monoprint printed on paper handmade by David Kimball at Magnolia Editions (Oakland, California). Text printed with Centaur type on BFK Rives paper by Alan Hillesheim at Digger Pine Press (Berkeley, California). Laid into a portfolio box lined with Japanese chiri paper and covered with Mexican amate paper. Each monoprint signed by the artist. Each suite signed by the artist and the master printer on the colophon. Each folio contains a separate monoprint inspired by a poetic fragment by Nahuatl-speaking poets excerpted from 16th-century transcriptions by Spanish missionaries. The poetry appears on the interior page of the folio in both Nahuatl and English. [Nahuatl, the language of the people popularly known as Aztecs, has been spoken in Mesoamerica since at least the 7th century CE.] Colophon: "Published on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the first meeting between Europeans and the inhabitants of the New World. Artwork by Gustavo Rivera. Text by Nahuatl-speaking poets excerpted from the transcriptions of the Spanish missionaries, Friars Bernardino de Sahagun, Adres de Olmos, Toribio de Benavente, Motolinia, and other informants, who between the years of 1524 and 1585 chronicled the wealth of Nahuatl poetry which survived the Conquest of Mexico. Edited and translated by Michael Dunev." Miguel Leon Portilla, "Flower and Song: Poetry" from Nahuatl Philosophy (quoted on the reverse of the title page of this suite): "One of the most profound of Nahuatl metaphors 'Flowers and Songs,' is repeated countless times throughout Nahuatl poetry as being the highest form of expression upon earth. Considered in essence to be the only way through which Truth could be expressed, this concept was so significant to the Nahuas, that 'poetic knowledge coming from the interior of Heaven,' was the key with which to penetrate the realm of Truth. Indeed it can be stated that all of Nahuatl thought had its roots deep in the wellstream of poetry."  Roberto Trujillo, "Unique and Limited-Edition Artists' Books" in Gustavo Ramos Rivera: "Much of Ramos Rivera's art clearly evinces his experiences and cultural background from Mexico, and this is most evident in his work for the portfolio Xochitl in Cuicatl. ...  "Ramos Rivera has always loved poetry. He told me of the ways that poetry and poets have affected his work. ... For Ramos Rivera, the processes of creating art and writing poetry are similar: 'Relationships between images and language are very interesting to me. Some sentences in poetry are like condensed paintings. Haikus, for example - you hear in the rhythm of the words the drop of water, or the bird that flew away. And the same thing happens in painting, only visually.'