A comprehensive biography of the author of 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' and 'Love in the Time of Cholera' - the most popular international novelist of the last 50 years.

    An American artist born in Cuba, she explored in her work her Caribbean roots through the lens of exile. She meticulously documented her ephemeral site-specific artworks, on beaches and in rivers, across flowery fields, and against walls of rock. Here for the first time, Olga Viso, the leading authority on the artist, presents a beautifully curated representative selection of photographs and drawings from the artist's archive, only a small selection of which has been previously published. The volume traces Mendieta's early studies as an art student in Iowa; the genesis of her signature works, the archetypal female forms known as siluetas; and public art projects, including ones being developed at the time of her tragic death in 1985. Interspersed throughout are revealing pages from Mendieta's notebooks: sketches, shopping lists for materials, recipes for gunpowder mixtures, and photographic source materials. Viso's accompanying essay reveals the artist's experimental approach and rigorous working methods, provides insights into the forces that inspired and shaped her work, and shows how the genius of Mendieta's vision has survived its physical manifestations.