Events | November 8, 2011

Codex Mexico Underway

CODEX Mexico is a pioneering initiative aimed at promoting the arts of the book in Mexico and Latin America and to foster the development of international collaborations and cross-border outreach and exchange of skills and ideas.

The first initiative is a collaboration with the Centro Cultural Estacion Indianilla and Tonaltepec Global S.C. in response to an invitation from The CODEX Foundation to co-ordinate CODEX MEXICO events at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) in late November 2011 and an Exhibition / with events (to be announced) at Centro Cultural Estacion Indianilla in February 2012. These two events will establish the CODEX Mexico Chapter as part of The CODEX International Network.

The CODEX Mexico inaugural events will include the opening of the exhibition Libros de Artista at 1:00 p.m. on November 25th, 2011 at the Centro Cultural Mundo Cuervo, in Tequila, Jalisco. CODEX Mexico will offer an inaugural presentation and event at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) during a conference to be held at 8:00 p.m. on November 27, 2011, at the Agustin Yañez Hall (upper level). On this occasion, the CODEX Mexico Manifesto (en español) will be issued as a starting point for the promotion and establishment of a Center for the Study of the Book, a library, and a regional center for the safeguarding and preservation of significant books on the art and history of printing and a laboratory preserving and teaching the multiple skilled crafts of handmade book production aimed at national, regional and global markets.

On February 16, 2012, this same exhibit will move to the Centro Cultural Estacion Indianilla in Mexico City. The exhibition is comprised of a collection of original hand-made volumes printed in California and drawn from the collections of Stanford University Library and an equal number of artist's books made by Mexican artists and printers will be included to make this a ground-breaking cross-border collaboration.

A catalogue will be issued in conjunction with the joint Stanford University Library / CODEX Mexico Exhibition titled Libros de Artista, with texts by Peter Rutlredge Koch, printer and president of The CODEX Foundation; Robert Bringhurst, poet and erudite historian of printing, and the renowned Mexican writer Pedro Angel Palou. Copies may be obtained from the CODEX Foundation.

CODEX Mexico opening events are generously supported by the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts, the Guadalajara International Book Fair, the Centro Cultural Mundo Cuervo, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government of Mexico City, the Consulate General of Mexico in San Francisco, California, the Embassy of the United States of America in Mexico, Stanford University Libraries, and The CODEX Foundation.