The three-time winner of the National Prize, Miquel Barceló interprets the classics to continue the legacy of one of the treasures in the Bernat Metge Collection: the Aurea dicta (Words of Gold) volume.

The outcome of an unprecedented creative process, this is Miquel Barceló’s most ambitious publishing project.

Aurea Dicta by Miquel Barceló, awarded ‘Best Art Book Prize’ by the Spanish Ministry of Culture

 

The House of Classics is proud to present a limited, numbered and unique edition of 1,298 copies, each signed by the artist.

Wisdom of the past. Wisdom for the future

Aurea Dicta, a unique work of Catalan literature, is a compilation of the classical texts that were much loved by the most notable intellectuals in the Bernat Metge Foundation.

After studying them in depth, Miquel Barceló selected 562 aphorisms in the original volume and has interpreted them in an artwork in which the plastic arts, thinking and publishing have come together.

The legacy of this ancient wisdom is more relevant today than ever before.

The classics as seen through the eyes of Miquel Barceló

In Aurea dicta, Barceló’s art engages in a dialogue with authors such as Aristotle, Plato and Homer, among many other quintessential names of Antiquity.

The volume contains 228 pages with more than 120 pictorial pieces by Miquel Barceló, printed on the same Fedrigoni paper as the original and demonstrating the artist’s full of spirit vitality.

Details

Edition
1,298 numbered copies signed by the artist and 50 copies not for sale.

Case
Deal wood printed in five colours with milling. It includes a built-in metal folding lectern.

Book
Closed: 33 x 44 cm; open: 66 x 44 cm.
Boards: Cardboard covered with Winter&Company Toile Canvas printed after an original design by Miquel Barceló.
Endpapers: Images by Miquel Barceló printed in four colours on 240 g Flora Avorio paper (Cordenons).
Interior: 228 pages of 200 g Tintoretto Gesso paper (Fedrigoni) printed in five colours. Some pages feature gilded printing, collage elements and artisanal interventions.
Binding: Hardbound with 16-page sections sewn using thread. Flat spine with headbands.
Colophon numbered and signed by the artist.

Giclée
Original work by Miquel Barceló reproduced using digital giclée printing in eight pigmented Ultrachrome inks on 310 g Hahnemühle William Turner paper, protected by a folder and neutral waxed paper.

Translations Addendum
Closed: 16 x 32 cm; open: 32 x 32 cm.
Boards: Cardboard covered with Wibalin Cotton White paper (Winter) printed after an original by Miquel Barceló.
Interior: 120 pages + endpapers.
Endpapers: Images by Miquel Barceló printed on 140 g Flora Avorio paper (Cordenons).
Interior: 120 g Munken Lynx Rough paper printed in one colour and one section in four colours.
Binding: Hardbound with 16-page sections sewn using thread. Flat spine with headbands.

With the support of Institut Català de les Indústries Culturals