23rd January - 28th February

Indigo+Madder and MARCH are delighted to share the gallery’s second project in the Foyer –– curated by Letra Muerta.

For The Foyer Project, Letra Muerta presents four publications alongside a selection of archival material from their permanent collection to invite visitors to consider publishing as a way to recontextualize what history has erased and forgotten. As most of this material was exposed to extreme conditions due to the lack of infrastructure in Venezuela, it had to be rehoused to remain accessible and preserved for posterity.

Letra Muerta is an award-winning design studio and archive center directed by Faride Mereb and Oriana Nuzzi, located in Brooklyn, New York. Originally founded in 2014 as a publishing house in Venezuela, Letra Muerta opened as a physical space in New York City in 2022. After ten years of designing and publishing, Letra Muerta now functions as a hybrid studio for design, historical preservation, workshops, and collection development. Projects are selected and developed with an emphasis on works in translation and multilingual content, with special attention to typography and cultural awareness.

Shelf by Livia Lauber features:

1. Espacios Para Decir Lo Mismo by Hanni Ossott, Red Cover

2. European Face Mask purchased by Hanni Ossott

3. Poemas by Ida Gramcko, Special Edition

4. Hanni Ossot Manuscript

5. The Private Life of Rag Dolls by Aquiles Nazoa

6. Black Horse Rag Doll by Aquiles Nazoa

7. Red Horse Rag Doll by Aquiles Nazoa

8. Man Rag Doll by Aquiles Nazoa

9. El Farold Magazine, Julio-Agosto 1957

10. El Farold Magazine, Marzo-Abril 1958

Ida Gramcko (Puerto Cabello, 1924 – Caracas, 1994) was a Venezuelan essayist, journalist, playwright, poet, and professor. She was a recipient of the National Prize for Literature in 1977. She published Poemas, Poemas de una psicótica (1964), Este canto rodado (1967), Salmos (1968), Sonetos del origen (1972), Salto Ángel (1985) and Treno (1993), among others. She also wrote columns for about 50 years in the El Nacional newspaper.

Hanni Ossott (Caracas, 1946 – 2002) was a Venezuelan essayist, scholar, translator, and poet. Daughter of German parents, Ossott’s mother died when she was three years old; this premature death marked her life and her work. She studied at the Faculty of Letters and Literature of the Universidad Central de Venezuela, where she would later work as a Professor. She would focus her studies largely on German literature and philosophy, following the work of Heidegger, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Rilke, as well as Plato’s and Heraclitus philosophy, studied in depth at the University of Athens. She published translation on Rilke and Emily Dickinson to Spanish, essays such as Memoria en ausencia de imagen / Memoria del cuerpo (1986), Cómo leer la poesía (2002) and books of poems: Espacios para decir lo mismo (1974), Espacios en disolución (1976), Formas en el sueño figuran infinitos (1976), Espacios de ausencia y de luz (1982), Hasta que llegue el día y huyan las sombras (1983), Plegarias y penumbras (1986), El reino donde la noche se abre (1987), Cielo, tu arco grande (1989), Casa de agua y de sombras (1992), El circo roto (1996).

Aquiles Nazoa (Caracas, 1920 – 1976) was one of Venezuela’s most prominent writers, journalists, poets, and humorists. His work explores life in Venezuela, particularly in his modest neighborhood, and conveys the values of popular culture. He became the correspondent of El Universal. He worked in Tropical Radio and collaborated in the weekly magazine El Morrocoy Azul and the newspaper El Nacional. He also wrote for the Colombian magazine, Sábado (Saturday). In 1945, he became editor of the magazine Fantoches. In 1948, Nazoa obtained the Premio Nacional de Periodismo (National Journalism Prize) in the humour and customs section. But in 1956, he was expelled from the country by the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez and returned in 1958. He died in a car accident between Caracas and Valencia.

Erika Morillo is a writer, photographer, and translator born and raised in the Dominican Republic and based in Jersey City. Her work focuses on family narratives, identity, and the possibilities of image-text publications. Her photographs have been published and exhibited nationally and internationally, and her books are in the collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art Library, MoMA Archives and Library, The Met Library, and The International Center of Photography Library, among others. She has taught workshops at the Center for Book Arts, International Center of Photography, Columbia University, CHAVÓN School of Design, and Dominican Writers Association. She holds an MA in sociology from The New School for Social Research and an MFA from Image Text Ithaca (now Image Text M.F.A. at Cornell University).