Artists' Books at the Benson Latin American Collection

Cartoneras often go unnoticed as Artists’ Books despite their experimental nature in text, visuals, and bookbinding. Cartoneras emerged as a grassroots publishing movement in Latin America, utilizing cardboard from the streets to create books that uniquely combine art and literature. This form of bookmaking began in Buenos Aires in 2003 after the 2001 economic crisis. Due to the crisis, many people became cartoneros (waste pickers), sorting through the city’s waste to sell materials to recycling companies. Conventional book publishing operations became financially impossible for bookshops and publishers. This led artists Javier Barilaro and Fernanda Laguna to find alternative ways of publishing books. They created the art collective Eloísa Cartonera, allying with cartoneros, purchasing cardboard, and collaborating in bookmaking workshops to produce hand-painted, cardboard-bound books. These workshops brought together writers, artists, and cartoneros, becoming a mode of resistance against classism, hierarchies, and economic inequality. [1]

Cartoneras are Artists' Books that transform imagery and text. They allow writers and artists to use them for various purposes, whether political, artistic, or otherwise. Their accessibility and collaboration across classes facilitated the emergence of other cartonera collectives, not only in Argentina but throughout many Latin American countries, including Mexico (La Cartonera), Brazil (Dulcineia Catadora), and Peru (Sarita Cartonera).  

Footnotes

[1] Bell, Lucy, Alex Flynn, and Patrick O’Hare. Taking Form, Making Worlds: Cartonera Publishers in Latin America. First edition. William and Bettye Nowlin Series in Art, History, and Culture of the Western Hemisphere. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2022.