Codex Espangliensis: From Columbus to the Border Patrol

Inspired by the pre-Hispanic codices that escaped immolation during colonial invasions this artists book opens out in accordion folds expanding to a length of over 21 feet. Rice has created a series of beautiful and jarring montages in which the mixture of languages slang poetry and prose of Gmez-Peas performance texts are woven through and around Chagoyas collages filled with pre-Hispanic drawings colonial-era representations of New World natives and comic book superheroes. Irreverent to the last Gmez-Pea and Chagoya employ iconic figures and persistent stereotypes to overturn the fantasies of nationalism ethnocentrism and historical amnesia that cloud international relations. Rices masterful typographic compositions orchestrate the texts many voices and views offering a history of the Americas which must be read forward and backward in fragments and in recurring episodesin short as history itself tends to unfold.