Poems by Emilio Adolfo
Westphalen; etchings by
Fernando de Szyszlo on
Alcantara paper. Text hand
set in Centaur and Arrighi and
printed letterpress in both the
original Spanish and the English
translation by Edmundo Bendezu.
Case binding in paste paper over
boards with an etching mounted
on the cover. Enclosure made of
handmade paper. Edition of 45.
1992. $1,500.

A collaboration by two Peruvian artists whose creative interactions spanned many decades. Fernando de Szyszlo’s relationship with Emilio Adolfo Westphalen dates back to 1947 in Lima, Peru, when they worked together on the literary magazine, Las Moradas. Szyszlo, born in 1925, is inspired by Precolumbian architecture
and ritual. His well-known series of paintings and prints, Abolition de la Muerte, was created in response to
Westphalen’s poems of the same name. Westphalen is strongly identified with the Peruvian surrealist poetry movement of the 1930s. Szyszlo selected four poems for
this book and responded with a series of intimate color aquatints. The poems are printed in both English and Spanish and the binding allows the etchings to be viewed facing either language.