Books from the author’s library covered with paint
20 issues + 1 P.A.+ 7 prototypes
“Books I do not understand; books that came to me somehow; books I meant to give as gifts but didn’t dare to; books people gave me who didn’t know me well enough; books from a particular time in my life, a memory; books from my childhood; books from past phases; books from one trip, or several; books that taught me; books I loved; books whose lessons I have already learned. Books that have closed, never to be reopened.”
Guillermo Mora
We mention our favorite books, suggest people read them, and dare to give them as gifts, but what happens to those books in our library we never plan to reread? That we no longer want to keep? Do we talk about them? What space have they got? Where are they left?
Obras Completas [Complete Works] is the first book by artist Guillermo Mora, a collection of 20 unique pieces comprised of plenty of books from his personal library marked with paint, trapped together for good.
Paint in this project serves not as an image but as a material which covers and encloses. The blocks of color partially or totally bathe the books’ covers, back covers, and spines, literally hiding their contents. Information fades layer by layer. Paint seals pages that will never be opened again.
Each piece forces the authors and the titles to coexist. In groups of two, three, four, and up to five books, these diverse objects are now grouped as one thing, like a capsule, and obliged to tell their story.
Obras Completas [Complete Works] is a section of a library that will never again be opened, read or consulted. Each layer of color makes these books’ words less accessible. However, each book veiled in paint can now be read and understood in a new way.
Obras Completas is a series of works by Guillermo Mora where he transforms books into sculptural objects by layering them with acrylic paint. Each book is progressively obscured, rendering its original content unreadable and creating a new form of interpretation. These works explore themes of accessibility, memory, and the physicality of the book as an object.
