Canalización Ancestral de Borikén, Areyto de Liberació Artist's Book by Jocmarys Viruet Feliciano

$1,180.00

This piece is part of the Who is America at 250? Artists' Books on the State of Democracy, an exhibition originating from the San Francisco Center for the Book. On view at Minnesota Center for Book Arts: June 12 - August 16, 2026.

"This book is a space for Puerto Ricans to reconnect with their ancestry. The reader of this book seeks to decolonize their own mentality and history to find their own grace without depending on Christianity, the religion of the colonizer. This book opens a space for an Areyto, a ceremony that offers healing, rooted in the land. The title of the book represents the land itself providing the strength needed, while detaching from grief, a feeling of inferiority, and colonial control. Canalización translates as the act of channeling and Borikén or Borinquen is the indigenous name of Puerto Rico. Canalización Ancestral de Borikén, Areyto de liberación is a space for liberation and healing in book form.

What is it like for you to be an American?

I set out across the country to learn what Americans think about their national selfidentity during this historic time, traveling 20,000 miles to do so. I made nearly 500 formal portraits of everyday Americans with a large format, eight-by-ten inch view camera, and asked each of them to respond in writing to the question, “What’s it like for you to be an American?... This handmade edition collects the portraits and thoughts of 76 representative Americans." - Jocmarys Viruet Feliciano

8.5" x 5.5" x 0.25"

This piece is part of the Who is America at 250? Artists' Books on the State of Democracy, an exhibition originating from the San Francisco Center for the Book. On view at Minnesota Center for Book Arts: June 12 - August 16, 2026.

"This book is a space for Puerto Ricans to reconnect with their ancestry. The reader of this book seeks to decolonize their own mentality and history to find their own grace without depending on Christianity, the religion of the colonizer. This book opens a space for an Areyto, a ceremony that offers healing, rooted in the land. The title of the book represents the land itself providing the strength needed, while detaching from grief, a feeling of inferiority, and colonial control. Canalización translates as the act of channeling and Borikén or Borinquen is the indigenous name of Puerto Rico. Canalización Ancestral de Borikén, Areyto de liberación is a space for liberation and healing in book form.

What is it like for you to be an American?

I set out across the country to learn what Americans think about their national selfidentity during this historic time, traveling 20,000 miles to do so. I made nearly 500 formal portraits of everyday Americans with a large format, eight-by-ten inch view camera, and asked each of them to respond in writing to the question, “What’s it like for you to be an American?... This handmade edition collects the portraits and thoughts of 76 representative Americans." - Jocmarys Viruet Feliciano

8.5" x 5.5" x 0.25"

Jocmarys Viruet Feliciano (she/her) is a visual artist from Arecibo, Puerto Rico with a focus on hand papermaking and Book Arts. She holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and a master's degree from the University of Iowa, Center of the Book. Jocmarys worked as an intern at the Morgan Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Her first experience with handmade paper was in 2014 as an exchange student in South Korea. Jocmarys has taught several bookbinding and handmade paper workshops in Puerto Rico and in the United States at places such as Penland School of Crafts in Bakersville, North Carolina, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Taller Lapaduma in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. Her artists' books are part of special collections such as University of Miami, University of Iowa, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. Her most recent artistic experience was being part of a winter residency in the mountains of Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and The Lucayan Archipelago Artist Residency at the Poinciana Paper Press studio in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Website: www.jocmarysviruetfeliciano.com