In the small town of Capellades, where echoes of its rich papermaking past still linger across the landscape, artist and master papermaker Vi-tòria Rabal has dedicated her life to preserving and transforming a centuries-old tradition. Nestled near the Montserrat mountains, Capellades was once at the heart of a thriving hand-papermaking history, home to sixteen mills collectively known as the Molins de la Costa. Fed by the Carme–Capellades aquifer, the mill pond, La Bassa, once powered the entire region’s paper mills. Today, only one mill remains active–Molí dela Vila–now housing the Capellades Paper Mill Museum, where Rabalhas served as director for nearly four decades.
Yet, Rabal’s story is about more than simply safeguarding history. It is a narrative of resilience, creativity, and renewal. Despite several mills in Capellades falling into disuse, the museum under Rabal’s leadership, has evolved into a dynamic force, not just preserving this legacy but reimagining it for the future.1 Through her artistic vision, Rabal breathes new life into the craft, integrating hand papermaking into contemporary art and ensuring it remains a living, evolving heritage. However, the fragility of this tradition is increasingly threatened by environmental changes. The recurring droughts that have drained La Bassa underscore the broader challenges facing traditional arts reliant on natural resources.
Early one morning in March 2024, I met Victòria at a train station just south of Capellades. The first impression was striking—the landscape transitions sharply from Barcelona’s sprawl to a breathtaking mountain range cloaked in juniper, oak, and pine forests. As we ascended on our drive into town, following the Anoia River upstream, sunlight filtered through the towering pines, illuminating the lush reed beds along the road and thriving in unexpected places—a fitting metaphor for the enduring spirit of Capellades.2
In 1982, then in her twenties, Victòria relocated to Capellades with her husband who had grown up in the small town. “Bueno, es una historia sencilla,” she modestly remarked, “Well, it’s a simple story.” Eager for a rural escape from her upbringing in Barcelona, where she taught drawing classes, she received a grant from the Ministry of Culture and established her studio in Capellades. Upon learning of the Museum’s renovation plans, she inquired about potential work.
Reflecting on her journey, Victòria shared:
“Empecé desde abajo, haciendo las fichas del inventario mecano-grafiadas y numerando las piezas. Esto hizo que tuviera un conocimiento exhaustivo del fondo museístico del museo: maquinaria, herramientas, moldes, documentos, etcétera. En los años siguientes, participé en la remodelación de las salas de exposición permanente sobre el origen y la historia del papel en Cataluña y ya en 1985 comenzó mi trabajo como conservadora del museo. No fue hasta 1995 que fui nombrada directora aunque desde hacía años mi trabajo era dirigir el museo, cosas que pasan. Hubo bastante reticencia al principio queu na chica joven que no venía de la industria fuera la directora. Pero mi tesón y trabajo acabó por ganar.”
“I started from the bottom, making typed inventory cards and numbering the pieces. I had exhaustive knowledge of the museum’s collection: machinery, tools, moulds, documents, etcetera. In the following years, I participated in the remodeling of the permanent exhibition rooms on the origin and history of paper in Catalonia and in 1985 I began my work as curator of the museum. It was not until 1995 that I was appointed director, although, there was quite a bit of reluctance at first that a young woman who didn’t come from the industry would be the director. But my tenacity and work ended up winning.”3
Since opening in 1961, the museum has dedicated itself to preserving the art of handmade paper and its significance to the region. Handmade paper from Capellades carries a tangible materiality and authenticity, imbued with a sense of place and history that mechanized paper cannot replicate. In April 2024, the museum joined a transnational nomination to UNESCO as a World Heritage site, emphasizing not just the physical preservation of the mills, but also the cataloging of intangible cultural heritage, a concept both elusive and profound.4
As we drove through Capellades, Victòria pointed out one of the original paper mills across the road—a robust limestone structure that, like others dotting the landscape, stands as a testament to the region’s heritage. She recounted rescuing books and documents from a derelict mill nearby, hoping to restore these materials in the museum’s library.5 Many of these mills now lie abandoned, some reclaimed by nature—overgrown grasses and berry bushes rewilding the landscape, defying time and neglect.
Arriving at her studio—a space steeped in both history and creativity—it is clear that this is where the material and poetic elements of Victòria’s work converge. On the ground floor, vats, presses, and drying racks stand ready for use. However, it is on the third floor, flooded with natural light, where her studio truly comes alive—a sanctuary of uninterrupted creativity. Here, the walls and tables are covered with projects spanning years, show-casing diverse sensibilities, themes, and a captivating palette with hues of blues and greens, a nod to water’s central role in both her art and life.
For Victòria, water is more than a medium; it is a symbol of continuity and transformation. Her series of gyotaku fish rubbings, crafted between 2011 and 2014, embody a tender homage, a quiet devotion, to the process of collaboration. They underscore the delicate balance of multi-species relationships and our ever-changing world. Through her work Victòria reframes the narrative of human impact, offering gestures of connection and preservation amid perceived loss.6
Victòria’s journey into papermaking was influenced by the artist and papermaker Laurence Barker, as well as her own curiosity and determination to explore new possibilities with paper. She credits the global community of artists, especially the papermakers of Aoya, Japan, with broadening her vision of the papermaking process. These collaborations have enriched the museum’s offerings, transforming the museum into a space for cultural exchange.
She reminisced:
“El cambio definitivo [en mi carrera] fue trabajando en el museo, y fundamentalmente el conocer en 1983 a Laurence Barker. Siempre recordaré el día que fuí por primera vez al estudio de Laurence Barker en la calle Ganduxer de Barcelona. Laurence me hizo conocer un mundo desconocido, un mundo infinito de posibilidades del papel y el arte. Por eso en el verano del ‘84 organicé el “I TALLER DE PAPEL” [en el Museo] con la participación de Laurence Barker, Frederic Amat, and Dai-Bih-In. En los años siguientes fuimos invitando a grandes personalidades de hand papermaking como a Elaine Koresty, Mina Takahashi, John Gerard, Anne Visbøll, et cetera. De este modo pude aprender de cada uno de ellos y además establecer vínculos de amistad o colaboración.”7
“The definitive change [in my career] was working at the museum and fundamentally meeting Laurence Barker in 1983. I will always remember the day I went for the first time to Laurence Barker’s studio on Ganduxer Street in Barcelona. Laurence introduced me to an unknown world, an infinite world of paper and art possibilities. That’s why in the summer of ’84 I organized the “ARTPAPER WORKSHOP I” [in the Museum] with the participation of Laurence Barker, Frederic Amat, and Dai-Bih-In.8 In the following years we invited great hand-pape-making personalities such as Elaine Koretsky, Mina Takahashi, John Gerard, Anne Visbøll, et cetera. In this way I was able to learn from each one of them and also establish bonds of friendship or collaboration.”
In recent years, Victòria has collaborated with her daughter, Claudia Pagès, intertwining their artistic legacies and visions in projects that draw from Capellades’ papermaking heritage while pushing its boundaries in both content and form. Pizarra mágica (tiempo y aguas) (2024) features handmade papers adorned with unique watermarks—text and drawings that become visible when illuminated by a lightbox. Each piece reflects variations in water colors, symbolizing the changing hues brought on by the drought and overexploitation of the Capellades aquifer. Shaped like the mill pond, La Bassa, the lightbox layers time and place, weaving together the interconnected themes of paper, history, and the circulation and politics of water.
Reflecting on her tenure at the museum, Victòria wrote in 2005, “As a director of the Capellades Paper Mill Museum, one of my goals is to preserve both the material and intangible history of paper. This winter, while surveying the paper mills in the area, I had the opportunity of revisiting each of them, having not seen most of them for years. These visits verified the impeccable passage of time. I felt helpless in my struggle to safeguard all of this memory which seemed condemned to fade and decay into ruins.”9
Her words highlight the delicate tasks of protecting a “living heritage,” where architecture, ecology, and tradition coexist. In the face of the climate crisis and shifting cultural landscapes, the challenge isn’t merely to maintain the structures or preserve artifacts, but to ensure that the narratives flowing through Capellades remain vibrant and relevant. Recurring droughts have reduced La Bassa, once a thriving mill pond, to precariously low levels, reflecting the dwindling aquifer it depends on. This fragile balance between nature and tradition underscores the urgency to protect enduring craft histories. Through her creative vision and collaborations, Victòria is doing more than preserving; she’s actively renewing. The stories she carries forward are vital not just for understanding the past, but for connecting generations—ancestors, descendants, and communities—to a shared history. For Victòria, caring for this legacy transcends duty; it is an everyday practice.10
Author’s Note: The author would like to give sincere thanks to Victòria Rabal for sharing her knowledge, time, and trust, from our original conversation in Capellades to the many emails and messages over these last months. Special thanks to the following people, for going beyond: Malte Stiehl, Mina Takahashi, and Karolina Toporkiewicz.
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notes
1. Read more about the history of the museum, Simon Barcham Green, “Amongst the Catalunyan Hills: On Capellades Paper Mill Museum,” Hand Papermaking 27, no. 1 (Summer 2012): 41–46.
2. View the paper routes from Capellades to neighboring towns along the Anoia River, https://www.caminsdelpaper.cat/en/.
3. Victòria Rabal in conversation with the author, April 2024.
4. About this nomination with five other European paper mills, see https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6766/.
5. Victòria Rabal has collected a vast and impressive collection of papermaking books in the archive and library at the museum. The library is open to the public, by appointment or during open hours at the museum.
6. For more about this series of prints, see the self-published, limited-edition catalog of Rabal’s 2014 exhibition, “Gyotaku: capturar l’anima dels peixos (Gyotaku: capturing the soul of the fish),” at the Maritime Museum in Barcelona, Spain.
7. Victòria Rabal in conversation with the author, April 2024.
8. From 1984 to 1996 the paper workshops organized at the Museum were called I TALLER DEL PAPEL. Beginning in 1997 the Museum began to refer to them in Catalan: TALLERS D’ART-PAPER.
9. Victòria Rabal, from her statement, accompanying her contribution to Hand Papermaking’s 2005 paper portfolio, The Art of Pulp Painting. This statement is reproduced on Rabal’s website, https://www.victoriarabal.com/pag/premsa.htm.
10. For more on the subject matter of “care as an everyday practice,” see Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017).
