Bitter chocolate

Description:	Letterpress from photopolymer plates on a variety of handmade and commercial papers. Jacobs ladder construction. Illustrations by Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder and Julie Chen. Text by Julie Chen. Presented in a portfolio case with magnetic closure. Signed and numbered by the artist.--Vamp &Tramp website (accessed May 30, 2018).“Bitter Chocolate is an exploration of chocolate through the lenses of fact, fiction and culture. The book weaves together a fictional mythological narrative with historical facts and the artist’s own personal experiences to create a portrait of chocolate that is both lyrical and unsettling. The Jacob’s ladder structure allows for four distinct presentations of content. The book is first unfolded into accordion format, presenting the reader with visual and written content on each side. Then the page panels can be flipped over within the hinge straps that connect them revealing the second half of the content. The full meaning and impact of the story is only revealed when all four parts of the content are discovered and read.”--Artist statement from Vamp & Tramp website (accessed May 30, 2018).A Latin American oral folktale about Ixcacao, the Mayan goddess of chocolate, was the springboard for Julie Chens wholly new version of the myth. Titled Bitter Chocolate, it features an Ixcacao-like character named Cacao Woman. In the original narrative, Ixcacao is revered for abundantly providing for the people and showing compassion and wisdom in seeing to their needs. Then it happens that a ruling class of kings and noblemen comes to power. Science and the arts flourish but, sadly, the peasants suffer. Ixcacao is forced to marry the God of Commerce who turns her cocoa beans into currency. Because of its new monetary value, chocolate is forbidden to the common people. Later, the goddess of chocolate manages to bring joy back to the people. But the plan, though at first successful, backfireswar and disease pervade the land.Chen augments and varies the legend, adding many nuances to the character of Cacao Woman. She is powerful and yet self-effacing. Although she cherishes the cacao trees in the rainforest, she also worries about their future. Uncertain about the complex and changing relationship between the people and chocolate, Cacao Woman even questions her own culpability in the evolution of that relationship. Chen writes, If Cacao Woman has one regret it is about not intervening when cacao beans began to be used as a form of currency, for this practice turned each pod into an object of greed. Tribute in the form of sacks of cacao beans was exacted from each weaker civilization by the stronger, from the Maya to the Aztecs to the Spanish, and onward to the unfortunate and unjust global practices of the 21st century. --Just Look exhibition catalogue excerpt from Vamp & Tramp website (accessed May 30, 2018).
Origin:	2016
Created By:	Chen, Julie
Publisher:	Berkeley, California: Flying Fish Press, 2016.
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/BookArts/id/2543
Collection:	Herron Library Fine Press and Book Arts Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	Chen, Julie. Cacao. Chocolate. Chocolate--Fiction. Goddesses--Fiction. Autobiographical memory in art. Artists books--Specimens. Jacobs Ladder variety of handmade and commercial papers

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