meseta
/meˈseta/
a smooth, gentle mountain holding intertwined complexities underneath, a break in the landscape to read the surroundings.
About
meseta books is an independent, non-profit publisher that thinks and organizes textual and visual material into books. We curate, design, and produce research-based art publications in affordable, accessible formats, working in close collaboration with authors, artists, and researchers. We create books to be carried, shared, and read anywhere–objects that bridge theory and practice while resisting easy categorisation.
Our name describes a smooth, gentle plateau holding intertwined complexities underneath—a break in the landscape for reading the surroundings. This image feels like an honest description of what we want to create: publications that offer pause, density, and orientation.
Submissions
We publish research-based art, theory, and visual culture. We view editing and design as ways of thinking together, working closely with authors and artists to shape every project into a clear, accessible physical book.
Because our process is slow, collaborative, and hands-on, we publish a small number of titles each year. Most of our books are commissioned, but we are always open to proposals that share our interest in rigorous, experimental bookmaking.
As a small press, we cannot fully fund every publication. Authors and artists should expect to bring or apply for a grant/subvention covering production costs. We know funding isn't equally accessible to everyone. If you have a strong, vital project but lack financial backing, we are happy to help with support letters or grant applications where we can.
External funding allows us to keep our retail prices low and accessible without cutting corners on paper, printing, or design quality.
Please email your proposal as a single PDF—including a short intro, your funding status, and a project overview (an abstract/summary, table of contents, sample text, and any images or draft layouts)—to info@mesetabooks.com with the subject Project Submission: [Project Title].
Team
Jan Engelke, Ramón de Fontecha, Mariam Gegidze, Pablo Santacana López, Marta M. Legido
Impressum:
Jan Engelke, Ramón de Fontecha, Mariam Gegidze, Pablo Santacana López, Marta M. Legido
Impressum:
Ein Projekt des meseta e.V.
c/o Jan Engelke, Lasdehner Straße 28, 10243 Berlin
Vertreten durch den Vorstand: Jan Engelke, Pablo Santacana López
Kontakt:
E-Mail: mail@mesetabooks.com
Web: mesetabooks.com
Instagram: @mesetabooks
Register & Finanzamt:Vereinsregister:
Amtsgericht Berlin (Charlottenburg), VR 40157 B
Gemeinnützigkeit: Der meseta e.V. ist vom Finanzamt Berlin wegen Förderung gemeinnütziger Zwecke von der Körperschaftsteuer befreit. Haftungsausschluss & Streitschlichtung
Die Europäische Kommission stellt eine Plattform zur Online-Streitbeilegung (OS) bereit: ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr.
Wir sind nicht bereit oder verpflichtet, an Streitbeilegungsverfahren vor einer Verbraucherschlichtungsstelle teilzunehmen.
EA1EG:
Shifted Listening/
Desplazar la escucha
Vendedores de Humo
(Pablo Santacana López and Marta M. Legido), 2026
(Pablo Santacana López and Marta M. Legido), 2026
Marc da Costa,
Miguel González (EA3GZA),
Sheila Jasanoff,
Georgina Kleege,
María Rosón and
Zira Box
EA1EG: Shifted Listening/Desplazar la escucha takes this question as its point of departure, tracing a history of amateur radio into a groundbreaking study of visual culture, disability theory, and mid-century geopolitics.
The publication is one component of a broader, three-part research project that also encompasses an interactive online platform and a tactile and auditory exhibition opening at the Provincial Historical Archive of Ávila in September 2026.
The volume originates from the archive of 6,877 QSL cards—postcards exchanged by radio operators worldwide to confirm two-way shortwave contact—collected between 1952 and 1991 by Alfredo Abella Martín. Blinded by an unexploded Civil War grenade in 1944, Abella became the first licensed blind radio amateur in Ávila, Spain, and later founded the Association of Blind Radio Amateurs of Spain (ARIES). Operating under the call sign EA1EG from his domestic station, Abella forged an international web of contacts during the diplomatic isolation of the Franco dictatorship. Now housed at the Provincial Historical Archive of Ávila, this extensive repository grounds a three-part project comprising an online research platform (ea1eg.com), a tactile and auditory exhibition, and this publication.
Moving beyond the conventional view of QSL cards as mere technical receipts, the book treats these printed paper artifacts as a global atlas of vernacular self-representation. In its first section, the publication constructs a rich theoretical framework through narrative essays, historical contextualization, and cross-disciplinary dialogues. It explores the social rituals of the airwaves, the non-visual methodologies of shortwave listening, and the alternative spatial consciousness required to navigate international frequencies under political censorship and physical blindness.
In its second section, the volume unfolds into a curated visual catalog, organizing the physical cards along thematic and ideologically loaded lines. The book documents how operators from Leningrad to Louisiana framed their local identity for an unseen international audience—deploying state-sanctioned symbols, regional folklore, National Catholic imagery, and Cold War technological optimism. By bridging sound studies, visual culture, media archaeology, and disability theory, EA1EG: Shifted Listening provides distributors, institutions, and readers with a subtle, multifaceted examination of how microhistories of listening challenge and redefine our understanding of visual culture.
Financed with the support of Stiftung Kunstfonds, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), Culture Moves Europe, and Junta de Castilla y León.
Website project:
Jan Engelke,
Almudena Cazorla
Production: Ramón de Fontecha