| Title | On The World |
| Artist / Creator | Celeste Maia |
| Artist's Nationality | Portuguese |
| Place of Publication | Madrid, Spain |
| Publication Date | 2016 |
| Contributors | Celeste Pais, photographer |
| Structure / Binding | French-door binding |
| Medium / Materials | Hanji paper, toile de Marais spines, hand embroidered headbands, hand block print, calligraphy. Acrylic hand painted endpapers, with imaginary map sketches, digital typeset text and images on Montcube recycled, acid free papers |
| Number of Pages | 34 pages on each side |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 13 x 7.66 x .66 inches closed. |
| Edition Size | Edition of 20 |
| Box / Wrapper | Presented in a machine-sewn pouch with vintage buttons |
| Signed & Numbered | Signed and numbered edition |
I have been in movement all my life, from city to city, country to country, continent to continent. Mostly it wasn’t tourism, but education, family and work that led me to reside in different places and learn the customs, culture and language. Wanderlust is deeply ingrained in my psyche and is what feels natural to me. The idea of conveying the constant wonderment of experiencing places in an artist book was deeply appealing to me. We understand a new place with our mind, our feet and our eyes. So I made “On the World” elemental, relying mostly on photos I took of places and events that are personally meaningful, evoking the physical experience of being there together with the writings and thoughts about travel that have inspired me. “On The World” is best viewed opening the pages of both books simultaneously.
Artist Bio
Celeste Maia painted oil on canvas for decades, exhibiting and being collected internationally. She developed a parallel activity of writing and illustrating bilingual children's books, winning Portugal's top prize, Ler Mais, in 2006. In recent years Maia has been making artists books, drawing inspiration from her training as a painter, illustrator, and calligrapher. Consistently innovative with varied bindings, Maia usually writes her texts and though her work is often paper based, she also works with metal, wood and acrylic. In 2015 her book Resistance, commemorating the survivors of the 2004 tsunami, won a prize in Spain's top artist book show, Mas Que Libros. Celeste Maia curated the international book art show, CIBA 2015, in Portugal. Maia publishes her artist books under her imprint of Serpens Caput. A native of Mozambique, she has lived in many countries and now resides in Madrid, Spain.