Letterpress Edition

by
Michael Andrews

Machu Picchu, Cusco, Sacsahuman, Incas, the Altaplana. 1976

The 10x13 edition has 60 pages, letterpress on Stonehenge rag paper & 26 pigment prints, loose leaf in linen binding with a cover image in recessed window The standard slipcase is made of various woods: Pine, Fir, Redwood, Cedar, Poplar For an additional $50.00  Oak, Mahogany or Maple may be ordered. For an additional $100.00 Rosewood, Teak, Walnut, Cherry, Padouk or Cocobolo may be ordered. The window is clear lucite.

Limited to 22 copies. Individual prints are available in various sizes.

In early 1976, my friend Art and I traveled to Peru just  to see the Southern Cross and to become the living symbols of capitalistic  entrepreneurs, drug smugglers. I believed then, and believe now, that  the Law is merely an instrument to sanctify the crimes of the powerful  and to suppress the aspirations of the less privileged. All we learned  was that smuggling was a sucker's bet. The police do not play fair;  they cheat. They imprison the innocent in order to confiscate a camera  and to pad the statistics. They extort payment from the criminals  to permit them both to remain in the business of bleeding honest citizens  to death. Dylan was right, "To live outside the law you must be honest."  I might add that to live within the law one must be either a sacker  of cities or an impotent victim.    

So I opted to take my chances as a sheep among the wolves.  It is better to risk having your heart tore out and devoured than  it is to sell it for something as petty as money. I might add that  while it is ethically unsupportable to be a rapist and robber baron,  poverty is degrading.     Aside from the cheap education, it was the journey that  mattered. We traveled from Los Angeles to the terrors of the Lima  slums, to the whores, pimps, narcs, cocaine, fear, bad food, hotel  fires and on to the Andes, to Cusco, the fortress of Sacsahuaman,  down the river Urubamba to Machu Picchu, the Incas, the stone walls,  mountains and condors.    

The Inca empire and its destruction become a metaphor for man as the victim of the cultures he creates and of his momentary escapes. We went higher, onto the Altaplana, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, ancient Tihuanaca, La Paz and to the psychic rape of humanity by governments, police, law, and war. Finally, we returned to Los Angeles.    

Peru is one of those places, like India, where you can find everything at once: urban landscapes, the desert, the sea, the Andes, archaeological ruins, jungle, forest, Indians, dirt paths and jet-liners.     It is worth it all just to sit on the Malacon in Lima and eat a bowl of Cevice, or to sit on the peak of Machu Picchu and watch the clouds march over the Andes.