a collaborative collection of collagic images created by Carlos M. Luis 

with corresponding textual interpretations by Derek White

0-9746053-9-5

44 pages; hand printed and saddle-stapled; 28 lb. paper; 70 lb. cover stock; B & W and color illustrations.

$8

Retrazos is a Spanish term used to describe the stenciled remnants that a seamstress leaves on the floor after making garments. Carlos Luis gathered such defiled 'retraces,' along with magazine clippings and other found materials and repurposed them into a series of two dozen or so of the renderings that appear in this chapbook. Inspired by these images and also the Popol Vuh, Derek White wove together textual fragments into associative personal myths that deal with cornhusks, geometry, puberty, roosters, quantum basketball, court trials, genetics, dirty laundry, brick making, fish and graduating as a foreigner from a polluted lake in Mexico.

"ma(I)ze Tassel Retrazos calls up the etymological meaning of the word "text," a piece of weaving; not only does the narrative fray and reknit itself, but word and image have equal weight in weaving the text as a whole. Both are changed by their proximity, which makes their separate borders seem to bleed and dissolve. The whole evokes a world larger than the protagonist's knowledge or experience, as the images close over his story, just as the earth itself decomposes and closes over the individual." --Joyelle McSweeney, from a review in Constant Critic.

"Each sentence, each phrase, each section is rife with word and image connections whose associative power is forever mutating into new connections upon each visit, the jungle of symbolism triggering connections in your brain which you might not even be aware of."   -- CB Smith, from a review in Barfing Frog 

Individual pieces from ma(I)ze Tassel Retrazos appear online in Tarpaulin Sky, 5_Trope, Double Room, elimae and juked.com. Other Retrazos also appeared or will appear in print in Post Road, Anemone Sidecar and Liminal Pleasures. Six images from ma(I)ze Tassel Retrazos also appeared online in Sleepingfish. 

An interview with Carlos Luis and Derek White appears in Loggernaut. 

This is the second such collaboration by Carlos Luis and Derek White, the first was O, Vozque Pulp.