Casa del Libro is sponsoring “Ars Libris: 10 Libros, 10 Artistas” [Ars Libris: 10 Books, 10 Artists] a new collective exhibition that opens on May 17, 2012. The opening activity will take place at 7:30pm at the temporary site for Casa del Libro at 199 Callejón de la Capilla in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. The show will be on view through August 2012.

This exhibition features works by leading Puerto Rican visual artists, inspired by their favorite books from the Casa del Libro collection. Artists included are: Miguel Carini, Consuelo Gotay, Antonio Martorell, Elsa María Meléndez Torres, Nick Quijano, María Antonia Ordoñez, Ana Rosa Rivera Marrero, Jaime Suárez, Rafael Trelles, and Omar Velázquez. Works by these artists will be available for purchase; proceeds will go towards funding Casa del Libro.

Founded in 1955 by Amigos de la Calle del Cristo 255 (local concerned citizens of Old San Juan), Casa del Libro is a museum that holds a collection of notable manuscripts from colonial times. Highlights include precious manuscripts produced prior to the 16th century, known as incunabula. This collection includes two official documents signed in 1493 by King Ferdinand ‘the Catholic’ and Queen Isabella II of Spain. The museum has over 300 books published in the 15th century and also an exquisite edition of Don Quixote published in Valencia, Spain, in 1605 – the first year that Cervantes’s masterpiece was released in Madrid.

For more information on Casa del Libro, see http://www.lacasadellibro.org/