Deconstructing Elsie
Deconstructing Elsie
Deconstructing Elsie


El Taco de Ojo (Easy on the Eye)

By Ed Hutchins
Mount Vernon, New York: Ed Hutchins, 2000. Edition of 48.

3.75 x 6" custom crafted box with opaque window to view taco book. Seven shaped pages of “colorful foamy material” inserted into taco shaped shell. Silk-screened text panels on each side of page. Text in Spanish with English translation on reverse page.

Seven filling-shaped pages stuff a taco shaped shell. The ingredient pages are silk-screened with sayings about food, hunger, and desire.
"Un taco sin salsa es como un beso sin bigote."
"A Taco without salsa is like a kiss without a moustache."

Ed Hutchins, colophon: "In July 2000 Steve Warren and I set out on a year-long visit to Mexico. Our first stop was Cuernavaca. Antonio Ortega, once he learned of my interest in unusual books, presented me with the tortilla paper and asked, "Can you do anything with this?" The taco shells were assembled after Steve and I moved to Guanajuato. The colorful foamy material came from a side trip to León, the text came from Steve's cooking class with Luis Marhuani at the Falcon Institute, and the printing was done at OK! Taller de Serigrafía. Several months later we ended up in Oaxaca where Miarima Schaer photographed the blank books and Maris Spelman rough-cut the box sheets. Final assembly and box construction took place at the Editions Studio in Mount Vernon, New York with much help from Elsie Sampson....Happy feasting!"
$225