In Book 13, Sandy Rodriguez (2021 Creative Capital Awardee, Visual Arts) presents the premiere of a major installation supported by the Creative Capital Award.

Rodriguez’s largest installation to date, Book 13 unfolds as a monumental five-part map of the United States, a series of plant portraits, a hand-painted book, and a new landscape painting, all rendered on hand-processed amate-fiber paper. Drawing on a range of colonial Mexican sources in dialogue with 19th-century maps and boundary surveys from The Huntington’s collections, the installation brings together research on place, ecology, and regional histories.

“With ‘Book 13,’ I consider how histories and borders are marked, erased, and redrawn across this land. I want visitors to feel the presence of communities who shape this region—the lived stories that unsettle official accounts, affirm resilience, and bring layered truths to the surface,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez is the 2025–26 Hannah and Russel Kelly Distinguished Fellow in American Art at The Huntington, and this project grew out of her research residency, with support from Creative Capital Foundation.