For Hum 110, Reed students will explore the Codex Boturini, a 22-panel artwork that was created by an unknown artist in the early 16th centure AD. The artwork, also known as the Tira de la Peregrinación de los Mexica or Pilgramage Strip, depicts the Mexica, or Azteca, two-hudred-year migration from Aztlán to the Valley of Mexico.
The original artwork resides in Mexico City at the Museo Nacional de Antropología. The original artwork was drawn on 22 sheets of amate, a type of bark paper. which were then glued together to make a single sheet that measures 7.8″ high by 216″ long. Each sheet was folded accordion-style.
There are digital copies of the artwork in Reed Digital Collections, but we were tasked with making a reproduction of the artwork for students to view in its entirety, to view the artwork in close detail as well as to get a sense of the physical scale of the artwork.
Reproducing the artwork required taking the high-resolution photos of each panel and isolating the artwork from the paper itself, then using this isolated artwork to be printed by a laser printer onto handmade paper. Below is an approximation of the workflow for the first sheet.