This book was published on the occasion of the exhibition «Todos os Livros», by Lourdes Castro, curated by Paulo Pires do Vale, held by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Art Library, in the Temporary Exhibitions Gallery of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, on 9 July to October 26, 2015.

The exhibition that is now being presented, «Lourdes Castro. All books», brings together the books that the artist has produced from 1956 to the present, many of which are now on display for the first time. This choice of the Art Library to hold its first exhibition comes, on the one hand, to continue a connection between Lourdes Castro and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation that dates back to the 1950s, when the artist was awarded one of the first scholarships granted. by the Foundation to Portuguese artists, allowing them to seek artistic training abroad that they could not find in Portugal. Represented in the collection of the Centro de Arte Moderna, Lourdes Castro’s work has been the subject of several exhibitions […].

Of the books on display — which mostly belong to the artist’s private collection — are the first ones she made, where her drawings relate to and illuminate the word of the texts of poets such as Rilke, Rimbaud, Apollinaire and Herberto Helder. , and those where he started using rodhoïd and plexiglass, creating object books. Many of these books are unique and others were limited editions, made in silkscreen; some resulted from collaborating with writers such as Benjamin Patterson, still others from collecting on a topic she was fond of. There were many possibilities that the structure of the book allowed her to explore and it is evident, in the many books that Lourdes Castro created, the interest and affection that the artist has for this device, since its conception, with René Bertholo, of the magazine and publisher KWY , until today. Among the unpublished books, Un autre livre rouge, a book made in Paris in the early 1970s, in collaboration with Manuel Zimbro, is presented for the first time, individually framing its pages.

[Ana Paula Gordo]