New Work by Pere Salinas

Last winter as I was writing about Fernando Pessoa, Portugal's literary luminary of the 20th century, I received an email sending me to a pair of art books inspired by Pessoa's writing. The artist was Pere Salinas, who hails from Spain.

On July 8 Mr. Salinas forwarded to me images from his newest books, still unbound but complete. I consider it an honor to share a few of these pages here with you. This is a portion of his correspondence regarding the project.

Dear Ed,
I've been busy with the health of my son, but I have work and want you to be the first to see it.
I worked 3 artist's books.
Trilogy of Black
And have the following titles:
1-Out of paradise
2-La paraula no dita (The unspoken word)
3-Tarlatana

Tarlatana is a kind of gauze dressing used in etching to remove the ink from the engraved plates, and reinforce book spines.

The paper is handmade in India.
Measurements of the open book are: 28 x 38 cm.

No text, but one phrase that my son wrote in the first book: "I want my" and the third book shows a fragment of "Los heraldos negros" by Cesar Vallejo.

The books are not yet bound.

A warm greeting.
Pere Salinas

What follows here are five images which I have selected from the art book Tarlatana. What impresses me is how simple yet profound the images are. And in some mysterious way they connect with deep places within me. How are such things possible? This is the power of art.