Faride Mereb

Here are some pics + visual cues from the classes I taught at @yale last Fall. Ideating these “from scratch” made me realize the contradictions of my own research and how partial are some sources + all the work left to do. Some approximations: 1) To document is to ask ourselves why and from which perspective+context we are doing so// 2) It’s a contradiction to study design history(ies) and its precedents in Latin America + the Caribbean without considering migration patterns// 3) To understand the history of design in Venezuela —in this case mostly graphic, is to acknowledge its foundation in extractivism. This also intersects with subjects of race and gender, which is a fundamental part of how we construct our identity and shape national imaginary and history-making. Extended text in SPA below. ——— Dejo aquí algunas imágenes que son parte de la investigación para las clases que di en Yale. Enseñar una clase levantando muchos archivos “desde cero” me enfrentó a contradicciones en mi investigación, a darme cuenta lo parcializadas que están algunas fuentes, y sobre todo del trabajo que falta por hacer. Gracias @jacintosalcedo por el material enviado, es un honor para mí continuar el trabajo que con pasión hiciste por tantos años. Gracias Javier Aizpurua @vacafonta @elinaperezurbaneja por las referencias. Gracias a los antecedentes de Silvia Fernández, Gui Bonsiepe, @snessel . Gracias a @geoffkaplan y @nontsimutiti por la confianza. Gracias @malandrophotos @amuki.ec @fragmentario_ @erikamorillo por el apoyo con material documental de sus procesos de experimentación/campo. Gracias por los ejemplos sugeridos @cosgaya @psenseve @jennyabud . Gracias Dina por tu apoyo. Gracias a mi bibliófilo favorito @davidfernandez13 por ser mi invitado. Gracias a @daniela_spector por ayudarme durante semanas a digitalizar los archivos usados en clase. Gracias a mis estudiantes. Gracias @orianamrgarita por acompañarme en el commute y darme feedback. Y gracias sobre todo a @samorius por todo lo que me enseñas y me inspiras, y por aguantarme mientras pasaba días sin hacer más nada que leer y escribir. Espero vengan más cosas buenas este año. Seguimos.

Feliz lunes! ♥️ Here are some pics of the small publication I made about #KarmeleLeizaola (1929-2021): the first woman graphic designer in #Venezuela. I wanted to represent the progress in her life and work though the three newspapers, the smallest one is a photo of her as a kid (that her daughter sent to me), the one in the middle is when she started working in tipografía Vargas in the 50’s, and the last one (that you see here first) is a detail of a portrait that Carlos Ramirez shot for the micro documentary where I learned about her work 12 years ago. This publication would have not been possible without the support of @newspaperclub @10x10photobooks and many many other people involved. Special thanks to @orianamrgarita for assisting me with the project and @coryrockliff for helping me with my English and many more stuff. To my husband @samorius for the patience and these lovely photos. I also added some photos from the tiny solo show @chashama (thanks @sheryloppenheim ) You can get this @ksmallgallery Gracias siempre por el apoyo. #womendesigners #womenempowerment #womensupportingwomen #design #designer #graphicdesign #photography #newspaper #newspaperphotography #print #nyc #bookstagram #liketime

The show I have co-curated with @fabiola.rdelgado opens on the 23rd and I made a BOOK PROJECT that is ongoing to be participative alongside the show. I would like to invite all my followers to participate. The text bellow doesn’t nearly begin to describe the situation with Venezuelan passports and identity, but a small part of my statement. The text on the slides are facts collected by Fabiola.   Since archives are such an important part of my practice, I digitized the first Venezuelan passport I used for traveling to the US in the 90’s when I was one year old. This first trip was to New York, where I currently live. I reproduced the passport** as a facsimile, a self-portrait. I have tried doing similar projects in the past, but they were deemed too political and people did not want to get involved. I hinted at this in my last exhibit with a photograph of the cover. Reproduction is very present in how I seek to represent things; these are 300 passports, but in time there will be many more. Since most of my work is based on bookmaking and research, for this project I seek to use the mailing system as a form of protest. The passport becomes a medium for documentation, a book for rebuilding memories and identity, not through the eyes of the government, or the burden of this document (or lack thereof) but how I choose to see myself. Link in bio if you would like a passport mailed to you. *These reproductions are not valid traveling documents. Photos @samorius Hot stamping @birutaauna Facts @call.me.fa   La exposición que curé con Fabiola R. Delgado inaugura el 23, y uno de los proyectos que estarán de manera continua durante el trimestre será participativo. El texto no comienza ni a enunciar la situación de identificación, identidad y la problemática con los pasaportes en Venezuela, pero es una parte de lo que he escrito. Todos por acá invitados a formar parte. Link en la biografía. — #passport #venezuela #washingtondc #identity #bookarts #bookstagram #art #printing #notionsofexile #binding #NYC #photography #latinamerica #agameoftones #theimaged #photography #libros #pasaporte #books #handmade #printisnotdead #printisntdead #research #archive

Our books are now available for consultation @princeton . We are honored to have our publications be part of their collection and hope lots of people benefit from having titles available in campus. Thanks to curators at the institution for considering the work we do. 🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪 Nuestros libros son parte de la colección en la Universidad de Princeton 🇻🇪🇻🇪🇻🇪

He disfrutado mucho viendo todas las entradas de editorial que han mandando para @latinamericandesign 🔥 Hay demasiada gente talentosa en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. También en la diáspora. Gracias por la invitación. Y gracias a todos los que enviaron. Un honor además compartir espacio con @terezabettinardi . PD: en la animación que realiza la organización se incluyen trabajos hechos por mí + otros hechos en colectivo con el estudio @letramuertainc @orianamrgarita , además material de archivo referenciado en mis estudios, como catálogos de Cruz-Diez, libros de Víctor Viano, entre otros.

We have teamed up with @fanzinero 🇻🇪 to curate a selection of materials on Latin American Punk to make it accessible at University libraries across the USA and Canada. Proceeds go towards @redesayuda @naufragodeitacaediciones @proveaong to help finance initiatives for immigrants and political prisoners. Titles mostly cover Venezuelan punk, Latin American anarchism, and social movements. This collection also includes extra materials, like ephemera, that might not be reflected in these images. “When the Sex Pistols’ album ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ was released in 1977, Venezuela was one of the six Latin American countries with a democratic government. A year earlier, in 1976, the State had nationalized the oil industry. For this reason, it had a political and economic situation different from other countries in the region, not exempt from social problems of all kinds. In 1978, the band Kamara de tortura appeared in the city of Maracay. In 1980, the PP’S group was formed in Caracas. Both started a path that would be followed by other bands, modifying the pop-rock scene of the country. During the 80’s and 90’s, punk bands would be the soundtrack of the crisis of the governance model that had been created in 1958, when the former dictator fled the country in an airplane. Today, Venezuela has returned to authoritarianism. However, the new generations of punks have left the territory as forced migrants. When the future is uncertain, they look to the past for inspiration.” This collection of zines and books is for institutional acquisition. For single titles for independent people, you can reach out directly to the organizations. Uzcátegui is a sociologist and the Co-Director of Laboratorio de Paz, an NGO dedicated to promoting democracy and human rights in Venezuela. Previously, he was the General Coordinator of PROVEA, another Caracas-based NGO focused on defending economic, social, and cultural human rights.

We invited Palestinian-American artist @sabri to embroider a type lock-up and pattern we made for “The Private Life of Ragdolls”. Sabri Sundos works with textiles and Tatreez, which is considered a social language and living archive. The result ended up being hybrid in its nature since he added floral motifs preset in his own work to the label we designed. It was based book and exhibition project on Venezuelan writer and humorist Aquiles Nazoa (1920-1976). 🇻🇪 The font we used was custom-made by @bghryct based on stitching patterns from the first edition in 1976 and the techniques used in the dolls that are part of the publication. The endpapers were designed by @samorius and came from the book we published in 2019. Box fabrication by @phosphorescentfacehighlighter Sabri Sami Sundos work is rooted in his personal experience of being raised in the diaspora. He explores themes of identity, labor, and time. Through the merging of traditional craft and cultural iconography, his work emphasizes the importance of agency & human touch, highlighting the inherent tactile nature of art-making as a means of reclaiming and preserving heritage.  More soon about our book collaborations with Sabri. Photos by @samorius / Portrait by @bredvad (detail)

These past months have been the hardest for us since arriving to this country. I am grateful to be surrounded by such a supporting community of friends and colleagues to make it a bit more bearable. Thank you to my hyper supportive husband and best friend @samorius , to @orianamrgarita I could not ask for a better friend and studio partner to work with, the ethics you put into you work are incredible. To all my friends who have held me somehow in the past year: Thank you. Now that class is technically over, also thank you @nontsimutiti and @designerhooker for being there for me through the semester. All the context in Venezuela and Lebanon almost made me give up. Riley thank you for supporting me even when I lacked the language to express myself. For your advice and encouragement and holding the fort while stuff for me seemed to be falling apart. It’s very easy to post stuff about celebrating and winning, and never easy to do so about failing, hurting, or feeling defeated. May this post serve as a reminder that things eventually (hopefully) will get better and I’m always thankful for those who stay. As @kenningeditions taught me: onward!

AN ESSENCE | جوهر was a performance held at Letra Muerta in 2023, as part of @j7md solo exhibition. This book is the material result. The sentence that forms the accordion is a verse from a poem written by the artist, printed to the length of the room in which it was conceived: 36 ft. The box design, prepress, and giclée printing were produced under the care of Letra Muerta Inc. The box was fabricated by Liz Castaldo. A catalog of the works was designed and assembled by the artist. Edition of 7, with 4 copies remaining. AN ESSENCE is part of the collections at @uoft and @Yale . Jenna Hamed is an artist and art worker based in Queens, New York, born and raised in metro Detroit, with roots in Jerusalem, Palestine. She received her bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Fine Art from Eastern Michigan University and a master’s degree in Arts Politics from NYU. In 2024, she founded @jayseveninc , a collaborative studio-gallery in Brooklyn dedicated to producing installations and publishing initiatives. Photos @samorius Portrait by @jonyfin

Honored to be a part of the Venezuelan section at the Best Book Design from all over the world 2026 exhibit in Leipzig, Germany @leipzigerbuchmesse —We sent copies to @stiftungbuchkunst including the catalog for Arbol de Aceite by @malandrophotos our bibliography of 10 Years of Venezuelan Publishing + Lynne Shapiro’s new title translated by @psenseve . More soon.

CRANIA • by @adalbersalash Formally, the book is meant to be perceived as a medical guide or as a small encyclopedia. It comes inside a gauze sleeve and is wrapped like an envelope, similar to when medications are prescribed in the U.S. We wanted to evoke the rawness of the texts in the binding details—the sewing and the thread, the exposed spine with printed signatures—and in the typographic selection: Public Sans, a geometric sans, and Labrada, a serif by @omnibustype . One might think that there’s a fixed relationship between language and typographic style, but as the book evolves, these lines blur. The cover speaks to our failure as a society founded on colonial practices. “This is a book-museum with an exhibition about the cranial vault (…) It would be accurate to define Crania as a conceptual map that is at the same time the display of several diagrams/sculptures/performances, in which narrative and documentary aspects are sometimes accentuated (…) That variety makes the book bold and noteworthy, in the Letra Muerta editorial tradition” @humorvagabundo Drawings by @jesushverano.studio translation by @robinepmyers . Photos by @daniela_spector & @samorius Read more on our website. Also available in our online shop.

¿Cuál opción les gusta más? —Les compartimos dos variaciones de portada y parte del proceso de diseño para la coedición con @librosdelfuego 🔥Una colaboración muy satisfactoria para unir esfuerzos y publicar la poesía reunida de Miyó Vestrini. Regresamos a los archivos para buscar pistas formales y encontrar manuscritos tachados originalmente en rojo, cuyo elemento incorporamos en la portada. Aún estamos puliendo detalles. Atentos a esta edición en español que circulará en varios países, principalmente latinoamericanos, a precio de bolsillo. Vota en los comentarios. Edición & Correción: LM & LDF Diseño de portada: Letra muerta Inc. Diseño de tripa: Libros del Fuego Foto: Archivo Vestrini