Maylan Álvarez Rodríguez
Body Art (Para otras lecturas del cuerpo), 2015
Bellamar, Cuba: Ediciones El Fortín
One of fifty copies.
2818
Octavo. 19pp. Illustrations and multiple fold-out elements throughout by the book's designer (and the press's founder), Rolando Estévez, accompany Rodríguez's poetic meditations on women's sexuality, abortion, and menstruation. Sometimes celebratory,...
Octavo. 19pp. Illustrations and multiple fold-out elements throughout by the book's designer (and the press's founder), Rolando Estévez, accompany Rodríguez's poetic meditations on women's sexuality, abortion, and menstruation. Sometimes celebratory, sometimes confrontational, and certainly unflinching, the verses reify the place of women in a patriarchal culture which reflexively assigns bodily functions to the category of the grotesque. Particularly visceral, provoking the reader to assess their own reactions, is a paper napkin painted to resemble a menstrual pad. Illustrations throughout are drawings of female body parts, rendered in Estévez's idiosyncratic take on surrealism. The colophon and the binding push the discussion to encompass, too, the capitalist engine motivating, and motivated by, the assignment of women to a second-class status: attached to the front cover is "Socialist Barbie made in China." Binding itself of stiff, stained wrappers with colorful illustrations and text pasted on, with yarn and blue cloth over spine. Creasing to crescent moon, which extends above the front panel, else a near fine publication from Estévez's second, more experimental press.


