There Was A Shadow / Then Came A Book is an exhibition features over a hundred titles published by Gato Negro Ediciones, an independent publishing house based in Mexico City. Founded in 2013 by Leon Muñoz Santini, Gato Negro has gained international recognition for its bold books spanning photography, poetry, and radical political discourse. Balancing new voices with reimaginings of classic texts, their work challenges the boundaries of contemporary publishing.
For Gato Negro, the act of publishing began as an intuitive experiment, but quickly evolved into a practice that skillfully balances concept and execution, theory and action. Operating with minimal resources—including an old three-color risograph printer—they embrace the constraints of production to create objects that are both accessible and iconic. Gato Negro sees the book as more than a vessel for ideas: it is a cultural artifact and a technology, with its own unique language and grammar. The book as a format allows for sequences, narratives, and discourses that cannot exist in other mediums.
Aware of the contradictions inherent in publishing contemporary works, Gato Negro approaches its practice as a kind of performative action. Their books construct memory and knowledge while engaging critically with the limits of their medium, reflecting on the economy of circulation and the politics of production.
