Tribute by Jillian Sico - SOLD

Tribute is a letterpress-printed artist book that explores the history of amate papermaking in Mexico. The text is inspired by the 1542 Aztec Codex Mendoza, which lists tributes demanded by Aztec rulers from surrounding communities, including a pounded bark paper called amate. Because the Spanish destroyed paper and books throughout Mexico after their arrival, few examples remain of prehispanic screenfold books, or codices, painted on amate; the rest remain unseen only as ghosts, mentions, or memories. Meanwhile, the legacy of this paper continues to live on visibly and audibly through the Hñähñu artisans who still make amate today in the village of San Pablito, Puebla. For the cover of Tribute, I made my own Alabama kozo bark paper using methods I learned in San Pablito from the Santos Rojas family. The final text describes the sights, sounds, and smells of making amate, including the constant banging of stone beaters pounding fiber into sheets of paper.