Dia de Muertos is the Mexican Day of the Dead festival, falling each year on November 1st and 2nd. It's more an occasion for festivity than solemnity, but there are elements of both, as families gather at cemeteries to celebrate those who have passed before them with bundles of huge marigolds and picnics and plenty of good food. At home, celebratory altars, called "ofrendas," are created. These altars are decorated with calaveras (skulls made of painted sugar), photographs, candles, papel picado (cut paper), sweets and festive skeleton figures.

We here at JCBA love a good celebration as much as anyone else does, and we are particularly enamored of this one. We invite you to celebrate with us at our Dia de Muertos ofrenda, located inside the lobby of the Jaffe Center. Ours, naturally, has a rather bookish bent to it, and we've filled it with not just the traditional skeletons and papel picado, but also some of the gorgeous items from the Jaffe Collection, including original Posada prints from Mexico and the work of American artist Leonard Baskin.

Those of you who know Arthur Jaffe well know that he loves this type of celebratory artwork... and we have put this ofrenda together at Arthur's request. He wants it to be something we do on an annual basis; this is our inaugural display.And in the spirit of the ofrenda, we invite you to contribute to our display. We welcome your Dia de Muertos themed artwork (small prints or drawings of festive skeletons would be delightful), or, in the Mexican tradition, small photographs of your loved ones who have passed would be welcome, too.

Just in time to get you riled up for Election Day, the Jaffe Center for Book Arts presents a gallery talk that explores political and social commentary in artists' books. We'll use the books in our current JCBA exhibition "Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art" as a point of departure and look at many books from JCBA's permanent collection, as well.

Books have always been a means of connecting to the world of ideas, and artists' books are no different. The artists of the Dafatir exhibition, for example, speak volumes in very abstract ways. Their books deal in subtle and not so subtle ways about years of tyranny under the Bathe regime, the unprovoked invasion of their country in 2003 and in particular the subsequent looting of museums and libraries.... These are books from the geographic "Cradle of Civilization" by contemporary artists that are literally fighting for the survival of their culture.

We'll explore the work of Western artists, as well, including Maureen Cummins, who consistently tackles difficult subject matter in her work, the simple yet powerful "Gay Myths" book by Ed Hutchins, and a book by Meg Belachik about the heavy metal pollution of Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal--a book that is actually bound in lead. Others deal more directly with the political theme by focusing on presidential politics, and yes, the current administration has been a prominent source of material for artists.

This gallery talk is free and open to the public, but seating is limited; please reserve your seat by emailing jcutrone@fau.edu or phone (561) 297-0455.