Welcome to LIBROS

LIBROS is New Mexico’s Book Arts Guild offering a variety of inspiration for both traditional and experimental artist’s books. We hold regular meetings on the 1st Saturday of the month, as well as annual and special exhibits.

We welcome new members and guests – please see our Calendar page a full list of upcoming meetings.

2023–2024 series of programs

More details on our Calendar page....

Saturday, May 4, 2024

“They Had No Time To Say Goodbye”
with Rose Marie Prins

My LIBROS workshop will start with a PowerPoint presentation on my career as a maker of artist’s books, with a focus on my books relating to activism. The culmination of this is my most recent book, They Had No Time to Say Goodbye, created during a winter 2023/24 residency at an artists’ retreat in Guadalajara, Mexico. They Had No Time to Say Goodbye accompanies a multimedia installation of the same title that features four long, hanging scrolls (that fold into accordion books) comprised of x-rays with indigenous women’s and girls’ faces scratched onto them. The theme of the project is the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women, particularly as it relates to New Mexico. The installation, along with the book, was exhibited in Guadalajara in January, 2024. (See my accompanying artist’s statement below).

I am inviting artists from the world over to participate in the project. So far, artists from Seoul, London and Guadalajara have contributed portraits on x-rays. I plan, during the workshop, to invite LIBROS members to participate by drawing portraits of indigenous women to incorporate into the multimedia installation They Had No Time to Say Goodbye. Some may choose to tape their drawings onto the windows of the hall, tape an x-ray over it, and scratch a portrait onto the x-ray which will be added to more scrolls of faces on x-rays. Ideally, we would use light boxes to accomplish this. But daylight works well also. Those who chose not to scratch their portraits onto x-rays will be invited, in the spirit of collaboration, to donate their drawings of indigenous women to the project for others, in subsequent workshops, to scratch onto x-rays. 

I anticipate that some participants will be experts at portraiture, others may need instruction. I used to teach drawing at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and I continue to include drawing instruction in my painting course on Zoom through the Morean Arts Center in St Petersburg, Florida. Instruction in portrait drawing will be included in my workshop. 

In the fall I plan to take the project to Europe. I’ll be inviting artists in Germany and Portugal (where I will be attending an artists’ retreat) to participate.  

If you want to participate in etching the x-rays, please bring the following:

• Several sheets of tracing paper, minimum 9” x 11” 
• Soft pencil (4B)
• Eraser
• Pencil sharpener
• Ruler
• Masking, Painters’ tape or Cellophane tape
• Scissors
• Black and white print(s) of an indigenous woman’s face (or faces).

X-rays will be provided.

Artist’s Statement: Shortly after returning to New Mexico in September, 2022, I was confronted by a billboard with a blown-up face of a young Native American woman with one word: HOMICIDE. As a mother who had lost her only child six years earlier; and as an apartheid-era South African, sensitized to gender-based oppression, and as a feminist, this image struck me deeply. I was compelled to action. 

Proportionately there are more missing and murdered indigenous women than any other group. Media and governments, in their silence, are complicit. My project evolved into a series of artist’s books as part of a multimedia installation incorporating antique china doll limbs and scraps of red women’s and girls’ clothing: a metaphor for missing, murdered and trafficked daughters. I, and artists from around the world, are scratching hundreds of faces representing missing daughters and their mothers on old x-rays. 

The x-rays are a reminder of Native females’ transience and fragility in the face of violence. This is increasing due to “Man Camps,” established on Native lands as a result of the North American oil boom. The x-rays, enhanced with red (the color signifying the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's movement), are stitched together to create scrolls. Four scrolls are now complete. They are suspended from the ceiling above a heap of desert sand in which the antique doll limbs and scraps of red females’ clothing are partially buried. 

Accompanying the installation is an artist’s book of the same title that addresses the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls from the grieving mothers’ perspective. I am consulting with members of the indigenous community to ensure that this project has maximum impact and respects Native American mores.

Upcoming LIBROS Events & Programs

Check your Newsletter email for more details.

Saturday, April 6, 2024

How to Make an Origami Box
with Charlotte Greene

Saturday, May 4, 2024

“They Had No Time To Say Goodbye”
with Rose Marie Prins

Saturday, June 1, 2024

How to Make a Pop-up Book
with Susan Clifford

Saturday, July 6, 2024

No Meeting.

July 2024 – LIBROS & Santa Fe Book Arts Group show “Anything Goes”

The Libros/SF BAG Tortuga Gallery Show will be held July 4–13, 2024. Show is open to Members in Good Standing Only. This is a collaborative show and any member from either group is encouraged to enter.

More details and Application Form on our Exhibits page...

LIBROS Facebook Page

Please Like the LIBROS page on Facebook for upcoming news & events: Facebook/LIBROS New Mexico Book Arts Guild