In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection.
A recent acquisition in our library collection is the beautifully rendered artist book, Corona de Rosas (Crown of Roses), with illustrations of women in beautiful colorful flowered dresses. A collaborative work by artist Maria de los Angeles, and Esther K. Smith and Dikko Faust of Purgatory Pie Press, the inspiration and creation was Maria’s, while the letterpress execution and conceptual design was done at Purgatory Pie Press. The work is signed by all three collaborators.
Born in 1988 in Mexico, Maria de los Angeles currently lives in New York City. A wonderful and heart-touching artist, she addresses many issues, most significantly activism, identity and immigration through drawing, painting, performance art and fashion.
Known for her paper art dresses, the idea was to design something wearable for Maria herself, which led to the creation of this limited edition book. This is number 47 of 150; each book is hand folded and glued in Purgatory Pie Press’s New York City studio. Similar to her wearable paper art dresses, this is a paper crown depicting women dancing and holding hands. Each dress is embellished with images of roses, flowers, or faces in profile, and mothers embracing children.
Corona (crown) (view from above)
An exquisite example of wearable art, the book provides thought-provoking mastery of paper engineering, art, and a celebration of women.
Four ladies wearing dresses with roses.
Four ladies in dresses with roses; title and signature of artist.
Nilda Lopez is the Library Technician at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Library.
