Carla Busquets ~ Spain

Carla Busquets: “I work the artist book as a three dimensional, unfoldable object, exploring the confluence and limits between art and bookbinding. I often find inspiration in the natural world to create my books, using marbled papers, illustration and papercutting.

“After finishing a BA in 2010 in my hometown Barcelona, I started learning bookbinding and completed an MA in Book Conservation in London England.

“Since 2017 I run a studio and shop called La Frivé, in Barcelona, where I teach bookbinding and work on different projects related to paper engineering, book conservation and paper art.”

Abundance
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2023. One-of-a-Kind.

Size: 25cm x 14 cm x 13cm (open book). Box: 15cm x 18.5cm x 3.5cm. Technique: paste paper, heat foil, accordion book. Signed by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "The accordion book unfolds to a sea of abundance, with waves that merge with each other carrying fish of metallic tones."
$390

Underwater Ruin
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2023. One-of-a-Kind.

15cm x 20 cm x 7cm (open book). Tunnel book construction. Watercolour. Papercut. Signed by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "The tunnel book shows an underwater construction, a ruin of a church or a cathedral, where life has taken over in the shape of coral and seaweed. A representation of the temporarity of everything, of the perpetual decay and renewal of the world."
$650

City under construction
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2022. Edition of 10.

Size: 33cm x 20,5cm x 10cm. Material: Fabriano Murillo paper 360g. Technique: hand papercutting. Signed and numbered by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "This piece represents a bustling city scape always mutating and growing. The concertina spine allows the layers of ‘buildings’ to move and interact with each other, and the die patterns create a game of light and shadow that can be projected on the walls around it."
$200

Seabed
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

Size: 34cm x 21cm x 21cm pop out structure. Material: Fabriano watercolour paper 300g, onion-skin paper. Technique: watercolour, hand papercutting. Housed in a 27,5cm x 24cmx 4,5cm clamshell box. Signed by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "An underwater scene where corals and seaweeds create an intimate yet colourful shelter for sea life. We can see jellyfish and other specimens floating amongst the plants or hiding behind the sand. The accordion layers only attached to each other in certain parts allow for the book to stand in different positions, reassembling the fluid and changing nature of the ocean and its life underneath."
$ 1,200

Broken Civilisation
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets Salinas, 2020. One-of-a-Kind.

Dimensions: 39 cm x 17 cm open (15.4 x 6.7"). Box dimensions: 37 cm x 23.5 cm x 6 cm (14.6 x 9.25 x 2.4") Materials: Ink, paper, paste. Techniques: Watercolour, papercutting. Signed.

Carla Busquets: "This book depicts an old underwater cathedral symbolising a forgotten civilisation, the end of an era, and a representation of how the building repurposes itself in a new environment, serving as a home for fish and other sea creatures. The foldable paper structure is based on Barcelona's church of Santa Maria del Mar, from which I was inspired to create the arches, the rose window and the semi-buried sculpture on the seabed."
(SOLD)

Enclosed Garden
By Carla Busquets Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

Size: 20cm x 19cm x 19cm (size of the box: 25,5cm x 17cmx 7,5cm). Carousel structure. Material: Fabriano watercolour paper 300g. Technique: watercolour, hand papercutting Signed by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "This book adopts the classic carousel book structure to transform into a walled garden when completely open. Reminiscent of the pre-Raphaelite enclosed gardens, the composition shows a controlled wilderness, an intimate and manicured natural space to retreat."
(SOLD)

Infinite Cycle
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2020. One-of-a-Kind.

Size: 35cm x 10cm x 7cm closed. Materials: paper, bookboard, bookcloth. Techniques: watercolour, suminagashi paper, papercutting. Accordion book structure. Laid in box.

Carla Busquets: "The double accordion book shows the circular and endless movement of an ouroboros, a mythological being biting its own tail, representing the constant cycle of life. Facing the enormity of the ancestral being, there is a small fishing boat on the surface of the waters, a symbol of travel and nourishment."
(SOLD).

Labyrinth
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2020. One-of-a-Kind.

28cm x 20cm x 17cm closed carousel book. Materials: paper, bookboard, bookcloth, cord. Techniques: watercolour, papercutting. In presentation box.

Carla Busquets: "Four sides of the open book show four views of the Parc del Laberint d’Horta (Park of the Horta Labyrinth) in Barcelona, an example of garden design containing neoclassicism and romanticism elements, constructed between 1791 and 1853, and turned into a public park in 1971. The book is based on real architectural elements mixed and transformed into imagined compositions that play with light and shadow."
(SOLD)

Machine
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets Salinas, 2020. One-of-a-Kind.

Dimensions: 32 cm x 32 cm x 9 cm (12.6 x 12.6 x 3.5") open. Box dimensions: 11 cm x 18 cm x 7 cm (4.3 x 7.1 x 2.8"). Materials: Watercolour, bamboo skewers, paper, bookcloth, paste. Techniques: Watercolour, papercutting. Signed.

Carla Busquets: "This is an interpretation of my trying to find a centre, a stable pattern amongst the uncertainty of our times. I designed the gears to have aligned centres, but some pieces have hinges and can be moved just as events divert our paths. It is an exercise to realign them manually and find some calm in it, or try to see the beauty in their disorder. When open, the book describes an orbit, because looking at greater things than us like the stars above, the clouds, or thinking how the Earth keeps turning around the Sun every day helps easing the thoughts. It is also in a way an impossible machine because when open, all gears would turn in different directions. But who knows, maybe they're all actually turning back towards the core."
(SOLD)

Medieval Castle
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets Salinas, 2019. One-of-a-Kind.

29 cm x 22 cm x 22 cm open. Carousel book structure with ribbon tie. Materials: Dalbe 200 gsm paper, markers, Indian ink, black crayon, bookboard, bookcloth, ribbon, mica. Hand-drawn and handcut by the artist. Laid in a 32.7 x 14.7 x 5 cm custom clamshell box. Signed and dated by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "Every section of the book depicts a chamber of a medieval castle: the entrance, the armoury, the dining room, the bedroom, and the library. The book opens 360 degrees. The structure is vaguely based on the castle of Fougères, in France, although the furniture and details are completely invented and adapted from different sources of inspiration. All candle flames have a mica covering to give the impression of candlelight. "
(SOLD)

Submarine view
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2021. One-of-a-Kind.

: 16,5cm x 15,5cm x 14cm. Tunnel book. Material: paper, marbled paper, colour crayons, mica. Technique: hand papercutting. Laid in customer box with porthole window on front to reveal tunnel book inside. Signed by the artist.

Carla Busquets: "This classic tunnel book structure depicts an imagined view from a porthole. Marbled papers combine to represent sea caves, animals and plants."
(SOLD)

Somni (Dream)
By Carla Busquets
Barcelona, Spain: Carla Busquets, 2020. One-of-a-Kind.

30cm x 18cm x 8cm (11.8 x 7.1 x 3.1") closed pop up and accordion structure. Materials: paper, bookboard, bookcloth, gold foil, mica. Techniques: watercolour, paste paper, papercutting. Laid in box.

Carla Busquets: "'Dream' is an oneiric scene where all the elements invite us to travel in a calm sea and a starry night sky. The horizontality of the figures and the composition enhances the idea of movement forward, and the beam of light from the lighthouse is a comforting sign amidst the night."

Shades of "Moby Dick" – sea waves, a large whale, and a lighthouse in the distance. Adventure on the high seas as Busquets captures man versus nature.
(SOLD)