The artist's book as a personal and editorial endeavor: Javi Hernández (1968-2023) and Libros de Ida y Vuelta

Abstract

With the historical avant-garde, in the first decades of the 20th century, the book becomes an object of experimentation, “a work of art” (Maffei, 2015, p. 12), a concept of the book that in recent years has seen a new flourishing in a very different context: the tension between analog and digital (Tabernero, 2019). In this framework, we analyze, the unconventional career of the untimely Argentine writer, illustrator and editor Javier Hernández (1968-2023), who has settled in Spain for several decades. Illustrated books such as Haberlas haylas (2013) or El secreto de Jacinto (2014), written and illustrated by Javier Hernández; El tango de Doroteo (2017), with text by Antón Castro and illustrations by Javier Hernández, an exquisitely made accordion book; The picture book titled Como ella me enseñó (2022), by Arantxa Ortiz and Javier Hernández, which incorporates a deck of illustrated cards to exercise memory, etc., undoubtedly deserve a careful analysis that highlights how the materiality of the book acquires great prominence in the construction of meaning. The study is completed with the review, from this same perspective, of the collections of Libros de Ida y Vuelta, a publishing house founded by Javier Hernández in 2012 and directed by him until his death.