Conjuros y ebriedades: Cantos de mujeres mayas, Incantations – Jessie Kanji MFA Print 27′

July 1

The mayans word for book, Jun or vun also means paper, and the making of paper it a critical Mesoamerican tradition. The ancient Mayan god Itzamná is said to have created the invention of writing.

Long before the arrival of Europeans, Maya scribes created extraordinary codices from bark paper coated with fine layers of lime plaster, producing smooth pages that could be folded accordion-style into books. These manuscripts produced while only native people inhabited the land recorded astronomy, mathematics, history, ritual calendars, medicine, and genealogy, reflecting one of the most sophisticated systems of knowledge in the Americas. Writing itself was considered a sacred practice, closely associated with the deity Itzamná, who is credited in Maya tradition with the gifts of writing, knowledge, and calendrical wisdom.

Paper also held an important ceremonial role. During certain rituals, blood drawn from the tongue or ears was absorbed into strips of bark paper before being burned as an offering. As the paper transformed into smoke, prayers and messages were believed to pass to the gods. The material itself acted as a bridge between worlds—a vessel capable of carrying both words and spirit.

Much of this knowledge was violently interrupted during the Spanish conquest. In 1562, Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the destruction of countless Maya books, declaring that they contained “nothing but superstition and lies.” Today, only four pre-Columbian Maya codices are generally recognised as surviving. The loss represents one of the greatest acts of cultural destruction in the history of the Americas.

Working at Taller Leñateros has transformed the way I think about paper and books. The workshop is not simply producing handmade paper or artist books; it is participating in the continuation of a tradition whose roots extend back more than a thousand years. Through papermaking, printmaking, storytelling, and publishing in Indigenous languages, the collective creates works that honour Maya knowledge while speaking to contemporary realities. Their books are not replicas of the ancient codices, but they share the same understanding that a book can be far more than an object—it can be a keeper of memory, language, identity, and resistance. Incantations by Mayan Women is the first book Mayan people created that was written, illustrated, printed and bound in paper of their own making in nearly five hundred years.

At a time when many traditional craft practices are increasingly vulnerable to economic pressures, the work of Taller Leñateros feels profoundly important. Each sheet of handmade paper and every libro objeto they produce carries forward a lineage that colonialism attempted to erase. To support this work is not only to preserve a craft tradition, but to ensure that Indigenous ways of making, remembering, and telling stories continue to evolve for future generations.