Ana Mendieta: A Book of Works
"...the authors have honored (Mendieta's) desires by crating a book that speaks softly an genuinely in the artist's voice."by Alexandra Tager  --Art & Auction magazineWhen Ana Mendieta died in 1983, she was working on a book similar to this one,a slim volume of photo etchings of the life-size figures she carved into the stone walls of caves in Cuba's Jaruco State Park. The artist,a "Pedro Pan" child who was sent out of Cuba in the early days of Castro's reign,spent her short art life seeking expression for her personal exile. Inspired by Taino mythology, these pre-Columbian islanders believed the first humans emerged from a cave-Mendieta identified the Cuban caves with birth,including her own. Her intire body of work,largely a collection of photographs documenting such ephemeral art forms as earth works,performance pieces and body art,was spunon this theme of sel-identity,a return to her roots,to mother earth. Unlike her other photographic artifacts,however,these photo etchings were destined for a book, of which this is a facsimile. Her montes on the Taino myths appear as if in her own hand on these pages,along with her thoughts about how the book should be arranged. The result is an intimate experience with the artist's hand and mind and a unique act of closure for a career that ended in a still-unexplained fall from a New york high-rise.by Helen L. Kohen  --Miami Herald (1993)