Gathering words, thoughts, and narratives behind the making of an artwork, an object, a book, an exhibition, or an architectural project, the three new titles in the Notebooks series focus on the work of architects Pedro&Juana, writer Rodrigo Ortíz Monasterio, and designer Ettore Sottsass—who, in different and overlapping ways, engage with the idea of space as both a concrete and a highly personal cultural entity. As with other volumes in the series, the publications feature the processes of developing a project or an idea through the material and fragments that are often invisible in the final result.

Pedro&Juana is a studio based in Mexico City founded by Ana Paula Ruiz Galindo and Mecky Reuss. Their multidisciplinary projects include: Hellmut (2013), for Gallery 1 of Museo Jumex, Mexico City; Pavilion of Hotel Palenque is not in Yucatán (2014), a structure at the Hessel Museum of Art, New York (2014); Dear Randolph (2015), a domestic interior public square for the Chicago Architecture Biennial; With Love From The Tropics (2016–17), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; C13, a house renovation project (2012–17); and Le Stalle (2017–), a restauration of two animal stables and a pavilion in Lago Maggiore, Italy. In 2019 they were selected for the The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1’s 20th annual Young Architects Program (YAP).

Rodrigo Ortiz Monasterio is a writer, curator, and founder of the independent publisher Guayaba Press, based in Mexico City. He has received a master’s degree in curatorial practice from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. His practice focuses mainly on the expressions of modernism in Latin America, especially in relation to artists’ books and publications on architecture and archives.

Ettore Sottsass (1917–2007) was a seminal figure in twentieth century design. Born in Austria, he studied in architecture at the Politecnico di Torino, and had an influential career that spanned the globe as an innovative architect and designer. Honored with numerous international awards, Sottsass won the Golden Compass in 1959, and designed the iconic “Valentina” typewriter for Olivetti in 1969. In Milan in 1981, Sottsass founded the Memphis Group, a collective that radically changed the dynamic of Italian and world design, which laid the groundwork for his consultancy Sottsass Associati.

A collaboration between Tania Pérez Córdova and Francesco Pedraglio, Juan de la Cosa / John of the Thing is a Mexico City-based, artist-led, independent publishing project interested in commissioning, republishing, translating, and distributing works of fiction and poetry by writers and artists alike. Tania Pérez Córdova is an artist based in Mexico City. Francesco Pedraglio is an artist and writer based in Mexico City.

With bilingual editions and a specific focus on translation, Juan de la Cosa / John of the Thing explores the line separating literary works and the experimental writings put forward by visual artists, publishing authors that imagine new and ambiguous spaces for fiction and that test the limits of narrative and poetic writings.