Transient Books ~ Argentina
(Alex Apella)

The János Book
By Alex Appella
2006. Edition of 50.

21.7 x 63.8 cm (approx. 8.5 x 25”); 35 pages printed on one side. Includes 29 full color collages. Boards in black cloth with Japanese stab binding. Cut out on front board to reveal the face of one brother. Housed in a blackcloth clamshell box. Printed on 120 gram Bakri Avorio Paper using an Epson Inkjet printer and Epson Durabright Inks. Research, writing, design, printing, and binding by Alex Appella.

It’s difficult not to be hyperbolic about the scope and accomplishment of this work. Twelve years of research and development do not even begin to speak of its cost, or of its value. Because it involves self-knowledge, this book feels as painful and liberating as birth.

Questions abound: Is the past ever past? How long are its tentacles? Despite what we think in America, is it possible to reinvent oneself?

Full of drama both high and low, the story spans the 20th century. A 20-year-old Appella gets her Great Uncle János to open up about things that have not been talked about for decades. It begins – but we don’t know this at the beginning – with a Jewish family and five siblings in pre-WWI Hungary. By the time Alex Appella, the granddaughter of one of those siblings, becomes a part of the saga 70 or so years later, the family has been challenged by circumstance, diminished by events beyond their control, and scattered by personal decision. Heritage denied; heritage embraced. Does it make a difference?

My grandfather’s brother – your brother – emigrated to Palestine? We are Jewish? What do you mean? What does that mean? What can it mean?

Pontificate about the value of truth all you want to, The János Book reveals its cost.

Appella’s collage technique is well suited to capture this layered tale. The pages froth with art as well as information.

"One has to cry for the disintegration of our family. One has to cry, because what happened to us, has happened to millions of families all over the world. Since my childhood, it's like a bomb exploded among us, and we were scattered apart. An eye in Cuba, a bone in Argentina, a hand in California, a foot in Connecticut, and still more in Israel and Canada and Switzerland, all over the world. Conversations like what you and I have, Alex, at one time were common among family members. I'm passing on what I know of our family, to add meat and flesh to the pieces that have been scattered all over the world. The unity of what we once were can still give us strength, and can remind us of what we need for strength in the present and in the future.

"At some point, one must ask: what really leaves traces behind us? Nothing. What is painful today, or what was painful yesterday, or what is going to be painful tomorrow, in the end turns out to be nothing more than anecdotes. And then nothing. It is forgotten. Life is like water, it cleanses everything. Even the most painful. But the written word is not lost, ever. Memory, memory fades. The pain and the traces always disappear with time. The written word does not."
~ János Szenti

$2,000

Flash Flood
By Alex Appella
2005. Edition of 10.

8.75 x 6.5", 58 pages. Binding and design by Alex Appella. Illustration on title page created by Eve Slinker for this edition. From the Colophon: Flat Back Binding. The signatures are sewn onto linen tapes. The deckled pages are of Rives Tradition 120 gm paper. The content is printed on an Epson Inkjet printer using Garamond font. The slip cover is made of 250 gm Bakri coverstock. All materials are acid-free.

Flash Flood is a collection of poems written in 2003-4 that reflect the river valley where the author lives in the province of Córdoba, Argentina. The poems are divided into four themes: Place & Time, People, Thought, Beyond. The design of this edition is meant to accompany the endangered habit of spending a quiet afternoon with a book of poetry.
$95 (Four copies remaining.)

Jose, a poem from Flash Flood.

Jose
the stone mason
learned from his father
and grandfather
all the world is a stage
he can build
stone by stone
which he does
as they did
and
or
he can build
story by story
which makes for quite a foundation
such thick walls
even a solid roof
that not the wind, nor jealousy,
not the sun, nor gossip
can erode.

Amerika Skitzofrenika
By Alex Apella
Cover design by Magu Appella
2001.

8.25 x 5.25"; 14 photocopied pages, handsewn into 8.5 x 6" brown cardstock.

A collection of vignettes and poems, memories of a young American woman now living in South America which she found herself repeating to individuals in Latin America who asked her about growing up in the USA.
$10

On highways going through the forest, there are yellow diamond-shaped signs that have icons of jumping deer on them. (Beware of deer crossing the road.

Or rocks tumbling off a cliff. (Beware of falling rocks.)

There are yellow signs warning of curvy roads, of ice, of ducks.

The Garden
By Alex Apella
2001.

15 pages. Written and bound by Alex Appella.

Alex Apella: "A series of poems from life within the chaos of Argentina. As my vegetable garden grows, I watch inside and I watch outside and these are the words found in my sierra town, in the day, in this country tumbling through a nervous breakdown. "
$10

The Hammock Book:
Tales of Suspension on a Planet in Extreme Crisis
By Alex Apella
2002.

17 pages. Written and bound by Alex Appella.

Poetry by Alex Apella.
$10

The Gypsies

The gypsies
roam in flags
of no nations
flowering breasts
nectars just covered
in yards of color
from this continent
and that one.
The gypsies' curls weave
their pupils twist
their fingers paw and tug
ringless on a day's work
in the city
fishing fortunes
among the crowds
who step into traffic
to avoid their possibilities
who scurry away
with biting temptation
from the ideas of the gypsies
and what they may
or may not tell you.
Do not stare at a gypsy
unless your pockets and your hopes
are empty.
Do not wish on a fortune
unless you have witnessed a gypsy
frolicking,
cackling
with yours.

The Tempest, the Shadow & the Lunatic
By Alex Apella
2000.

Original accordion design is a super integration of binding and content. 44 pages. On the cover of each copy is a bus ticket from the journey through Mexico. Blue paper covers with sewn binding.

Three short stories from Mexico and Nicaragua. The Tempest is an encounter with Javier and Silvia who lead us to a high sierra town of few words and many mushrooms. The Shadow is of a hitchhike ride with Patricia in her mini-van that left us in an ancient Zapotec village. The Lunatic is a window into selling books in the plazas of a broken Nicaragua.
$15

Temptations of the Frijolera Pot
By Alex Apella
2001. Edition of 240

48 full-color illustrations of over 20 poems. Each of the 240 numbered copies (120 in English, 120 en Español) is hand-bound by the author. Illustrated by Silvana de Gonzalez. Single volume double-back binding version with English and Spanish versions at opposite ends.

This collection of poems reflect an overland journey the author made with her husband from Alaska to Costa Rica. (October 1999-May 2000) The pages of this book blossom people, livelihoods and mysteries that accompany any traveler with an open heart.

The illustrations are realized using collage, pencil, ink, and watercolor. The author gave this collection of poems (unillustrated) to Silvana de Gonzalez as a gift upon her return from an extended journey throughout South America. As a surprise, Silvana then returned the book, fully illustrated, to the author. The illustrations were then scanned and prepared for off set printing.

The 240 numbered copies are bound in a number of different formats: single language and bilingual, with or without slip cases, using a wide variety of materials. No two copies are alike.

Single volume without slipcase $67
Single volume in slipcase $98
Two-volume set (one English, one Spanish). Slipcased. $120

El Trueque
By Alex Apella

19 pages. A collection of non-fiction short stories. El trueque is the practice of bartering in Argentina. The peso is harder and harder to come by, and bartering clubs are an ever increasing way for Argentines to put food on the table and take care of basic clothing and miscellaneous needs. These stories depict the Argentina of today and are based on our experiences as regular participants in bartering clubs.
$10

Well Diggers
By Alex Apella
2003.

10 cm x 10 cm. A bi-lingual presentation of a poem written in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico in 2000. Una presentación bilingüe de un poema escrito en Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico en 2000.
$5

The well diggers,

one below and one above,
pull up a bucket at a time
of rock
they began digging 8 months ago.
The circle they are pressing into the earth
is a meter and a half across
and barely 14 meters deep
and only just now damp

What Are You Doing Here?
By Alex Apella
2003.

5.5 x 4.25". Of the decision made by one US citizen to continue living in a crisis-stricken, unstable Argentina.
$8

'What are you doing here?'

Argentina asks me everyday.
'We're all trying to leave and you come to live here?'
They ask, and ask again.
'But why would you ever want to live here?'
Sometimes I respond, sometimes I invent, sometimes I ask back.
'What are you doing here, in the middle of all this mess?'
Sometimes I really have no answer at all.