I was invited to do a project commemorating the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth. My research resulted in a 27-foot scroll and this limited-edition artist book printed on Arches Cover Stock with hand additions. In both projects Walt Whitman’s words, process and internal struggles are intertwined with my own.

The text extracted from my work was written extemporaneously in the process of drawing the scroll. The text quoted from Walt Whitman’s work has been excerpted in sections and presented out of its original context.

This view shows the cover of the book slightly opened. The next two images show open views of the book.

This image shows a view of the book partially open. Please click on arrow to see an additional view of the book.

This view shows the book partially open as an accordion.

The text page of the book is a series of translations of the title, a Yiddish word used by my grandmother throughout my childhood as an incantation to ward off harm.

This is a slightly different view of the preceding image of Nishtdugadacht.

Contra el mal de ojo was made for an exhibition I had in Havana. The title means “against the evil eye.” The text page of the book contains a series of warnings from my grandmother not to tempt the evil eye.

Contra el mal de ojo was made for an exhibition I had in Havana. The title means “against the evil eye.” The text page of the book contains a series of warnings from my grandmother not to tempt the evil eye.

Don’t Lose Heart contains a play on expressions we use with the word "heart". Below is the text that appears at the end of the book:

You can have a change of heart, a heart of gold, a heavy heart, a heart to heart.

You can eat one’s heart out, lose heart, have a heart, take heart.

In my heart of hearts, with a heavy heart, cross my heart, from the bottom of my heart, Don’t lose heart.

This is a partially open view of Don't Lose Heart

Bordes deshilachadas is a bilingual version of my one-of-a-kind artist book, Frayed Edges. It was published by Ediciones Vigía in Matanzas, Cuba in 2001 and contains original text based on the ending of a 20-year marriage and art in collaboration with Ediciones Vigía, translated by David Unger.