Savannah Bustillo, “Desire Paths of the Second Generation”

Artist Statement

This book object is a transmigration of words and earth. A pilgrimage from head to tail, of wrists drawn back and forth. From spine to fore-edge, back and across. To displace a handful of sand is not a momentous act. It is slow. Delicate. Not at all like the crossing of oceans and large tracts of land that my parents undertook, nor their parents before them. Yet, I like to imagine that both are connected at the root: the careful displacement of earth marking you as you travel from one place to the next.

This book object features five nested trays in a modified portfolio case. Wrapped in red book cloth, the lid is secured with buried magnets and can be opened by lifting a ridge strip to reveal the inner lid of the box. The inner lid has an additional wrapped piece of book board on its underside that nests neatly into the stack of trays below it, securing the trays to the portfolio. The stack of trays can be pulled out to be further interacted with, and when installed, each tray is placed in a horizontal line. Each of the five trays presents the same elements, but in varying compositions: two partitioned sections, one with a glue brush resting on red washi paper (brushes varying in size from XL to XS) and one filled with fine white sand. This simple presentation prompts viewers to pick up the brush and begin displacing the sand, revealing a background of the same red washi paper and red raised letters. The height of the letters is just enough to be picked up by the pressure of the brush. As viewers work their way around the tray, moving sand back and forth, lines of words are revealed and hidden, as the varying amounts of sand in each tray barely allows all the text to be visible.

Prompted only with a brush and an open landscape, viewers can experience this journey and meditate on what it means to consider the history of the book within the history of migration. Here, I have chosen the materials that would be used for a standard Western codex: book board, book cloth, decorative paper, adhesive, card, and spine liner, with the presentation of text across the five trays motioning to pages. The tool used for excavation is a glue brush. Each of these choices contend with the sand; each tray liable to its movement and slow wearing away. These two forces, the energy and sacrifice through storing up and transporting knowledge, and the erosion of sand and time, meet each other here. As viewers undertake this trek through patient repetition, they will be rewarded in turn with an unearthing of words in each tray:

I displace a handful of sand

And the swept bits lodge themselves in the traps of my teeth

This box another space I drag my wrist across,

another ocean my family must traverse

Straining forward, a rhizome caught in the sand

Held in neither a landscape of loam nor a scrapyard of scourings

I balance the prickling grit in the middle of my tongue

not swallowing

as I move to grab more

The above poem reveals itself in five stanzas across the five trays. The lines and words are spread throughout the available space, only discoverable through a full exploration of each tray. As viewers slowly reveal lines of poetry, they also cover up previous lines; the sand must be moved somewhere, even if it means covering what was just discovered. Earth and syntax collide, making it necessary to parse the sand again and again to hold onto a full picture. Completing the journey continuously is required. The poem recasts the viewer as a traveler, displacing sand not just with the brush but with their body in an imagined terrain. The traveler pushes against larger forces that deposit residual grit on them, at times feeling caught in a limbo where any flourishing is also met with loss. It is a balancing act: collecting little bits along the journey, straining to move forward, bringing little because you cannot carry everything.

I have come to realize that many things feel like a passage, many surfaces look like oceans. To thrive I must keep going — continuing the journey my family has been undertaking for generations, in search of better. To be a part of a family that is spread thin throughout the globe, I am keenly aware of what is riding on me as I embark. But I feel proud to have made it this far, the next iteration of travelers.

savannah bustillo

Iowa, USA
https://www.savannahbustillo.com
IG:  @savannahbustillo

Desire Paths of the Second Generation
2026

Installation, five nesting 11 1/4 x 9 1/4 inch trays in a modified portfolio case; Book board, Iris red book cloth, Sekishu paper, red washi paper, 20 point card, Italian glue brushes, sand

11 1/4 x 46 x 1 1/2 inches (open); 11 1/4 x 9 5/8 x 6 3/4 inches (closed, in case)

See More 2026 MCBA Prize Entries

---