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*Le livre de Mariage* stands among Josef Sima’s earliest and most refined experiments at the intersection of poetry, typography, and image. This Paris edition of 1922 gathers nuptial and love poems by Symbolist and related writers into a carefully orchestrated whole. Sima acted here not only as illustrator, but as the guiding force behind the entire conception. The 31 original woodcuts, both in the text and hors-texte, create a visual rhythm that feels almost musical. The austerity of black and white and the tactile quality of Montval paper deepen the intimacy of the book as object. As an early artist’s book, it already reveals Sima’s gift for fusing literature and image into a single poetic field.

This Antwerp publication by La Serfouette (1969) forms an unusually complete set as a “Réunion des 2 tirages” of *Il est toujours trop tard. 1924-1928*. It brings together two issues: an ‘ordinary’ issue in stiff orange paper wrappers and the deluxe issue with Roger van de Wouwer’s graphics. A telling peculiarity: the ordinary issue’s title page also states “Dix Gravures de Roger van de Wouwer”, yet the plates are in fact absent—functioning essentially as a textual ‘copy’ of the deluxe issue. The deluxe issue, by contrast, is complete and accompanied by a “suite de 10 eaux-fortes originales (avec cuvette)”: ten large black etchings, all signed and justified. The ordinary issue is further enriched with an important “envoi autographe signé à Jeanne Abraham et André Stas (note sur la priorité de parution)”, in which Scutenaire insists that this second edition is “in reality, the original” because it appeared weeks, if not months, before the illustrated issue. Together, the two volumes document textual history, bibliophile strategy, and the paradox of publication priority within Antwerp surrealism.

*Ici repose* is a characteristic Fata Morgana publication, bringing together the poetic voice of Claude Sernet with a frontispiece and, in the deluxe copies, an original colour etching by Jacques Hérold. It belongs to that discreet yet highly charged category of books in which text and image do more than merely coexist: they deepen one another. The restrained format, issued loose in wrappers with flaps, perfectly suits the Montpellier press aesthetic of the 1960s. Sernet, whose poetry often maintains a tone of inward tension, finds here an especially apt visual counterpart in Hérold. The latter brings with him the legacy of Surrealism, though in a concentrated graphic form. The result is a bibliophilic edition in which modern poetry and artists’ printmaking meet with rare elegance. The Arches copies with signed etching make the book all the more desirable for collectors.

This extremely rare private edition of Alfred Jarry's Poèmes is a unique document in the Franco-Dutch literary exchange. The collection was printed between 1926 and 1928 at the initiative of the great Dutch writer and bibliophile E. du Perron, who held a deep admiration for Jarry's rebellious spirit. Limited to just thirty copies, not intended for trade, this work embodies the exclusive world of "editions printed for an amateur." The frontispiece features a powerful portrait of Jarry after a drawing by Picasso, underlining the connection between the father of pataphysics and the central figure of modernism. For the connoisseur, this book represents a rare synthesis of bibliophilic passion, international avant-garde, and literary friendship. It is a tangible testament to how Jarry's legacy lived on in the circles of early twentieth-century intellectuals.

*L’Opium* is a slight yet electric publication in which an early visionary prose text by Alfred Jarry is reawakened through four original engravings by Dado. Fata Morgana was an especially apt publisher for such a project, having long championed works in which image, poetry, and altered states of mind converge. Jarry’s text is not among his most famous books, yet it reaches directly into the imaginative territory that would later prove crucial to the modern avant-garde. Dado answers that feverish intensity not with mere illustration but with an autonomous visual language of his own, organic and unsettling. The result is more than a reprint: it becomes a genuine reinterpretation. The small edition on vélin d’Arches gives the work the aura of a refined artist’s book. For the bibliophile, it offers a discreet yet highly meaningful encounter between a proto-avant-garde writer and one of the late twentieth century’s most visionary artists.

In this scarce Antwerp book of 1923, Max Elskamp fuses poem and image into a devotional tribute to skilled work. *Les sept Notre-Dame des plus beaux métiers* is offered here in the original edition, issued in a very small numbered limitation by Albert De Tavernier and printed by J.-E. Buschmann. The cycle pairs seven poems with seven Virgin figures, each dedicated to a craft community—from imagiers to clockmakers. Elskamp’s woodcuts—32 distinct blocks, including seven full-page prints—give the sequence a measured, almost liturgical rhythm. Black ink predominates, yet a warm jonquil yellow subtly illuminates key motifs: the clover, the title vignette, and the heart-bordered frame surrounding every page. This copy is further enhanced by a pencil-signed autograph by the author-artist, adding a personal aura to the work. A quintessential bibliophile production in which typography, ornament, and verse achieve an unusually poised harmony.

*O solitude ! O fontaines !* belongs to the refined, understated poetry books through which GLM secured a distinctive place in the Parisian literary world of the 1930s. Paul Dermée, poet, critic, and early associate of the avant-garde, gathers here a sequence of poems centred on solitude, inwardness, and controlled lyrical tension. The reproduction of a drawing after Pablo Picasso gives the volume a discreet yet prestigious artistic frame. That alliance between typographic restraint and a major modern artist is precisely what makes the book so appealing to collectors. It was not conceived as a showpiece of luxury, but as a compact and carefully balanced poetic object. This copy acquires added individuality through Dermée’s autograph inscription to the poet René Lacôte. The two accompanying prospectuses further extend its documentary interest. The result is not only an original literary edition, but also a small archive of friendship, milieu, and poetic self-fashioning.

La Liberté ou l'Amour ! by Robert Desnos is a monument of Surrealist literature, presented here in an exceptional binding by master bookbinder Jean de Gonet. This 1927 edition contains the full text, including the notorious passages censored at the time. The work is a feverish exploration of eroticism and freedom, written in the automatic style that Desnos perfected. The combination of Desnos's rebellious text and De Gonet's industrial, architectural aesthetic makes this copy a unique collector's item. Furthermore, it bears the signature of Czech artist Adolf Hoffmeister, adding to its historical significance. For the bibliophile, this book represents the perfect symbiosis between avant-garde literature and innovative bookbinding art. With its dreamlike logic, unsettling eroticism, and atmosphere of veiled desire, this book can evoke Stanley Kubrick’s film Eyes Wide Shut

*La Belle et la Bête. Journal d’un film* is one of Cocteau’s most appealing hybrid books, poised between literature, cinema, and self-documentation. It is not a novelisation of the film, but the diary of its making, a text in which Cocteau records the creation of his work step by step. The reader is thus granted access to the workshop behind one of the most celebrated French films of the twentieth century. Published in 1946 by J. B. Janin, in immediate proximity to the film itself, the volume still carries the urgency of production, exhaustion, and wonder. The photographic plates after scenes from the film make it both a visual and a literary document. For the bibliophile, its attraction lies in the combination of cinematic importance and Cocteau’s personal voice. This copy gains further distinction through an inscription to Julien Cornilleau, with the names Jean Marais and Josette Day also appearing below in blue ink. It thus becomes not only an original edition linked to the film, but a tangible trace of the circle that brought it into being.

*Aux poubelles de la gloire* is a striking French journal published between 1977 and 1979, exploring the boundaries between art, literature, and social criticism. Edited by Guy Bodson and Laurent Gervereau, this publication serves as an intellectual crossroads where 'Pataphysics and Situationism meet. Its design, strongly reminiscent of the *Cahiers du Collège de ’Pataphysique*, reveals a deep affinity with the absurd science of imaginary solutions. Simultaneously, its visual language echoes the radical aesthetics of the Situationist International. For the bibliophile, it represents a rare document of a fleeting yet influential artistic dialogue.