Steven Johnson Leyba

TRAPezoid godSANTO CODEX Alimentarius

Steven Johnson Leyba

TRAPezoid godSANTO CODEX Alimentarius

Date

2010

Edition Size

unique

Media

Acrylic, Collage, Oil paint

Binding

Hand-sewn

Format

Artist Book

Dimensions

10.5 × 9 × 5.75 in

Pages

40

Collection

$ 6,800.00

Unavailable


The binding is sewn canvas glued to boards with gel medium. All 40 pages are canvas, soaked with acrylic and oil paint with gel medium. Pages are very pliable. There are collage elements using pieces of coral, beads, strings, and buttons.
10 ½ x 9 x 5 ¾ inches, 40 pages. Unique.
Signed by the artist: Leyba XLV.
(Satanic year 45 = 2010)

TRAPezoid godSANTO CODEX Alimentarius is a monumental and physical, textural continuation of Stephen J. Leyba’s work in, around, and against the Monsanto Corp. Sewn canvas glued to boards with gel medium. Pliable pages soaked in acrylic and oil paint. Work features human imagery and collage elements using pieces of coral, beads, strings, and buttons. 2010, unique. 10 ½ x 9 x 5 ¾ inches, 40 pages. Unique. Signed by the artist: Leyba XLV. (Satanic year 45 = 2010) hand sewn collage hand painted http://youtu.be/2rN8C9quJqUhttp://youtu.be/2rN8C9quJqU

“I have been making hand made books since 1989. I have made 14 books and that is my primary work. I record my life as it is being lived in an honest, organic and uncensored way. To me the most personal creation is the most universal. Simply writing words is not enough. Books are a way a culture preserves its history but often they are used to restrict information and control the ideas and politics of a society.

I seek to make books to liberate — books that defy control, censorship and simple definition, and instead depict life in its totality. I see my handmade books as political reclamations of the fecundity of the natural world. I paint oil over acrylic over collage over anything I can find. I embellish the paintings with glass beads and organic material from the world around me; with dirt, coffee, hair, leaves, molasses, blood, urine, insects I am literally putting the landscape and my DNA into the books, and they develop life from life. We are so used to having the synthetic and technological global culture define how we perceive ourselves, our bodies, our biology, and who we are, that when someone has a different point of view of the human experience and makes the commitment to put it in a book forever, it can be frightening and challenging yet very alive.

I embrace the reverence of the natural world that my Apache ancestors celebrated, one that focuses on the micro and macrocosms, nature, the reclaiming of forgotten and challenging symbols and all aspects of a life put into a book the moment it is happening.”
-—Steven Johnson Leybais an artist, painter, fine art bookmaker, author, spoken word performance artist, director, and musician.