Dave Buchen ~ Puerto Rico

Dave Buchen: "I work in the medium of linoleum prints. A choice based partly on a luddite-ish rejection of the convenient. So I carve each page and print them by 'hand,' using a manual Vandercook press, and then bind the books by hand.

"I started making books after moving to Puerto Rico and finding myself in artistic and linguistic crisis.

"I had worked in theater till then, with a group from Chicago, Theater Oobleck, that is very text based. In Puerto Rico, I found my Spanish manageable to eat and greet but not to spin a story ...

"And so I began to print books. I had for years printed posters and calendars, but books, and 'children's books' no less, offered me the chance to work with a minimum of words, that could be proofread, and could stand in for much more complex ideas."

El Librazo
By Dave Buchen
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Dave Buchen, 2011. Edition of 150.

8.5" x 8.5"; 92 pages. Japanese stab binding. Linocuts. Text in Spanish. Stiff cardstock binding with linocut image on front cover. Initialed and dated by artist on the title page.

Dave Buchen: "El Librazo is a new book based on the Spanish suffix - azo which when added to a word means to be hit by. So add - azo to libro (book) and you have 'hit by a book.'"

Illustrated words include
Un batazo (...by a bat)
El bizcochazo (...by a cake)
Un escobazo (...by a broom)
El espadazo (...by a sword)
El fondillazo (... by the butt)
El latigazo (...by a whip)
El lenguetazo (by a tongue)

$40

Bilingual ABC
By Dave Buchen
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Dave Buchen, 2009. Edition of 100.

5.5" x 8.5"; 33 pages. Japanese stab binding. Linocuts. Text in Spanish and English. Stiff cardstock binding with linocut image on front cover.

A colorful alphabet with Spanish and English words. Linocuts using primary colors illustrate each letter.
$40 (Last Copy)

Abecedario
By Dave Buchen
San Juan, Puerto Rico: Dave Buchen, 2001. Edition of 100.

2.8 x 4.7"; 210 pages. 29 one-sheet books, each sheet folded to 8 pages. Linocuts. Text in Spanish. Housed in 6 x 6.5 x 4" wooden cigar box.

An illustrated Spanish alphabet. 29 volumes for the 29 letter of the Spanish alphabet: a through z plus ch, ll, and ñ.
$50