COCA
COCA
Date
2022
Edition Size
10
Media
Collage, Goldleaf, Ink, Watercolor
Paper
Fabriano Artistico 140 grams
Binding
Accordion, Hardcover
Dimensions
9.5 × 14 × 0.75 in
Pages
10
Collection
CODEX 2022, Collection Development$ 6,800.00
5 in stock
View Collectors
Davis and Louise Riemer Currency Art Collection
Princeton University
Smith College
Tufts University
University of Delaware Library
Eliana Pérez’s newest book, Coca, is the second in her series about her home country, Colombia. It continues her evocative exploration at the bloody intersection of poverty, violence, and a global market economy, this time focusing on cocaine production and trade within Colombia’s borders.
A 24k gold leaf river bisects the cover, one of many scarce natural resources exploited and polluted to produce one of the world’s most valuable commodities.
Extending the accordion-bound pages forms a coca plant, speckled with blood-red fruit. The foliage is first rendered in verdant watercolor, then the dulled green of collaged US currency, and finally devolves into a white-on-white ghost of South America’s most revered and potent medicinal plant.
On the reverse, the red of the coca fruit stains through the paper, a reminder of the persistent, inescapable violence that plagues the campesinos, social leaders, and Indigenous communities. The final spread holds a short text outlining the impact of coca farming on the environment and the Colombian people.
The accordion binding allows the pages to be drawn out for display measuring 7′ 11″.