HTSI: An insider’s spot for rare books in Mexico City

May 20

May 20 HTSI: An insider’s spot for rare books in Mexico City

Casa Bosques in the Roma Norte neighbourhood offers art books, chocolate and a place to stay

Rafael Prieto was looking for office space for his design practice in Mexico City when he came upon an old mansion house sitting empty in the leafy neighbourhood of Roma Norte. He settled into the building, and soon had an idea for one of the other empty rooms. “I had discovered all these interesting publications when I was travelling for work,” says the designer. “I realised there wasn’t really a good art book store in Mexico City.” He partnered with the artist Jorge de la Garza on a curation of magazines, literature and art titles and, in 2012, Casa Bosques was born.

Today, the shop is spread across two rooms and a perfume store has moved in downstairs. Inside, long tables and a modular wooden bookshelf system designed by Prieto and local industrial designer Jorge Diego Etienne are stacked with indie magazines. You can find cult titles such as Vestoj, an annual academic journal about fashion and Maurizio Cattelan’s arty biannual Toiletpaper, as well as more traditional titles like Vogue or Dazed. The shop’s focus has progressed from magazines and books to “something rarer and more specific that feels like more of an investment. Some of these publications you could only find in a museum,” says Prieto. He currently has a rare first-edition monograph by the late artist Mike Kelley for visitors to admire, a tribute to the portraitist Larry Stanton (1,330 pesos, about £61), a deck of tarot cards designed by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington (about £33) and a history of the Morelia International Film Festival (about £20).

The building, which dates back to the early 20th century and is protected by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura, still retains many of its original features: Juliet balconies overlooking the quiet street below, a peaceful patio garden and sun-lit courtyard. Citing NYC’s Dashwood Books, Motto bookstore in Berlin and Tokyo’s Tsutaya Books as inspiration, Prieto has cultivated an intimate interior. It has the relaxed feel of a living room, with pots of succulents and ferns, casually placed wooden stools and Jean Prouvé chairs. “I wanted this openness and this sense of being in a universe of books,” he says.

A “chocolate wall” stocks bars made by another of Prieto’s operations, a small-batch chocolate company called Casa Bosques Chocolate, which he founded in 2011. The bars are made on site in a “chocolate atelier” located at the back of the mansion house using heirloom cacao beans (from $14).

Recent years have seen an influx of visitors to Mexico City, and the neighbourhood of Roma Norte has become buzzier. Prieto now hosts regular events: readings by artist and singer Devendra Banhart and former Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon, a screening of a documentary about the Lacandón rainforest. There was recently a cocktail party to celebrate the iconic gay magazine Butt, which drew in crowds of Mexico’s queer community. “I can’t share any anecdotes about that party,” laughs Prieto.

The space has continued to evolve: in 2021, Prieto added Pensión, a three-room guesthouse above the bookstore. “I just thought how great it would be to stay at the house and get to wake up early, grab your coffee and be around the books, maybe book an appointment at the chocolate atelier where you can try the beans or have a cacao infusion.” These simple guest rooms (from $190 per night) come furnished with sculptural lights Prieto designed with his boyfriend, the artist Loup Sarion, plus custom wall hangings, and wallpaper made from photos Prieto took of the Cy Twombly galleries at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, when they were lying empty. Next he plans to expand Pensión and create an appointment-only room for visitors to view the rarest and most expensive books and an on-site cafeteria. More ways, he says, for “people to be able to delve into our world”.