Enrique Chagoya (American, born Mexico, 1953)
Guillermo Gómez-Peña (American, born Mexico, 1955)
Bookwork by Felicia Rice (American, born 1954)
Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol
INV-2715
Enrique Chagoya (American, born Mexico, 1953)
Guillermo Gómez-Peña (American, born Mexico, 1955)
Bookwork by Felicia Rice (American, born 1954)1998
Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol
Enrique Chagoya (American, born Mexico, 1953) Guillermo Gómez-Peña (American, born Mexico, 1955) Bookwork by Felicia Rice (American, born 1954) →20th CenturyamericasaztecmayanArtist's Bookbook
Date
1998
Medium
Accordion-folded illustrated book, letterpress printed in black and red from zinc photoengravings on Mexican amatl paper lined with Japanese shintengujo tissue; bound in a portfolio of amatl paper over board
Dimensions
Closed: 23 × 29.1 × 3 cm (9 1/16 × 11 1/2 × 1 3/16 in.); Extended: 23 × 921.5 cm (9 1/16 × 362 13/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Robert G. and Elizabeth M. Knight Endowment Fund
Enrique Chagoya, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, and Felicia Rice published Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol in 1998 as a commentary on the border politics between the United States and Mexico. The book’s illustrations fuse pre-Hispanic graphics, postcolonial figures, and superheroes popular in US American culture. These images and accompanying text in Spanish and English challenge notions of historical erasure, US exceptionalism, and ethnocentrism that deeply impact border culture. Felicia Rice modeled the book’s physical composition––including its accordion-style binding, amatl paper, and abundant imagery––after the Aztec and Mayan recordkeeping codices that were destroyed by the Spanish following their conquest in Mexico. Both Gómez-Peña and Chagoya are known for their activism and for political art that uses culture as a lens through which to critique larger historical, sociopolitical issues. Codex Espangliensis is a project that resonates with their larger praxis.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
