An artwork rather than a book

The classical texts that Barceló selected coexist here with the most vital and luminous side of his creative universe: the sea, living creatures, the sun and the light of the European and African Mediterranean; humankind as figures in the landscape and the driving force of action; and animal life as a reflection of primitive human instinct.

The artist’s interventions – a blend of pictorial and sculptural elements – can be appreciated here from the conception of the book, for which he painted on an unusual canvas-cum-book.

Thanks to Barceló’s personal work on the format, Aurea dicta features motifs such as perforations made by hand, knife-cuts, collages and false symmetries created by transferring pigment from one page to another.

In keeping with the artist’s concept, the binding has been made using hand stitching with thread and the boards have been covered with cloth made in Holland that imitates the texture of the canvas traditionally used in easel painting.

Miquel Barceló wanted the work to bear the stamp of the original work and for it to be possible to recognise the dripping of the pigment, the trace of the paint spatter and even the rubbing of skin against the paper.

Miquel Barceló has designed the volume’s case as a sculpture of a number of fish painted and carved in deal. These fish have been reproduced by hand in each copy by combining the most advanced techniques with the work of craftsmen.

The design of the case enables it to be exhibited as an independent altarpiece or transformed into a lectern for displaying the open book.

The volume is accompanied by a large-format reproduction of one of the drawings done by Miquel Barceló during the process of interpreting Aurea dicta.

Thanks to eight-colour giclée printing on 310 g Hahnemühle paper, the reproduction is virtually indistinguishable from the original.

In keeping with the universal intentions behind the creation of the original, the work includes a book-cum-addendum in Spanish and English as an aid to its interpretation and to facilitate its dissemination.

This second book, in the same size format as the original in Catalan, and featuring a double-cover and 120 pages, also includes the pictorial work created by Miquel Barceló especially for the addendum on a full-size mock-up and real material.