Commentaire d’un exorcisme
A rare offprint from the Cahiers de la Pléiade (Spring 1950) centred on the troubled production of Poésie pour pouvoir. The texts recount a near-superstitious chain of mishaps: copies that split, participants who fell ill, a fabrication deemed “cursed.” Michaux writes with a blend of irony and gravity; Michel Tapié records the episode as an “ordeal–exorcism.” Later bound in burgundy morocco by Miguet, this copy gains a durable skin that belies its fragile origins. The Cahiers act as a laboratory for experiment and self-commentary. For bibliophiles, it documents material risk, print technique, and the myth around a book resisting its own birth.
Quantity
Michaux, Henri
Tapié, Michel
Commentaire d’un exorcisme
1950 | Paris | Cahiers de la Pléiade
A rare, focused document turning failure into form and lucidity; sealed by a Miguet binding.
A rare offprint from the Cahiers de la Pléiade (Spring 1950) centred on the troubled production of Poésie pour pouvoir. The texts recount a near-superstitious chain of mishaps: copies that split, participants who fell ill, a fabrication deemed “cursed.” Michaux writes with a blend of irony and gravity; Michel Tapié records the episode as an “ordeal–exorcism.” Later bound in burgundy morocco by Miguet, this copy gains a durable skin that belies its fragile origins. The Cahiers act as a laboratory for experiment and self-commentary. For bibliophiles, it documents material risk, print technique, and the myth around a book resisting its own birth.
€620
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
Offprint from the Cahiers de la Pléiade (Spring 1950); very few preserved; provenance Jacques Dauchez.
Paper
vélin
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
Michaux and Tapié offer three pieces: poetry as power, an essay on ‘curses’, and a chronicle of the technical fiasco. The booklet reflects on making and mishap, with language domesticating superstition. Exorcism is tied to the workshop’s concretes: paper, glue, fold. The voice is fevered yet controlled, humour as antidote. The whole reads like a rite to bring the text into the world after all.
Michaux, Henri
Ailleurs
*Ailleurs* is a keystone in Michaux’s imaginary ethnographies—an atlas of inner geographies, issued by NRF in 1948. Miguet’s sober bordeaux morocco binding matches the text’s clarity and restraint. With dry precision and wry humor, Michaux details peoples, rituals, and languages that are both alien and oddly familiar. The airy layout paces attention and thought. This copy belongs to the small head issue on vélin pur fil and is notably fresh. A book that relocates the reader in place—a cartography of the mind.
Book
€1,050
Ribemont-Dessaignes, Georges
Ariane
A remarkable copy of *Ariane*, published in the *Les Cahiers Nouveaux* series, inscribed with a poetic and enigmatic message by Ribemont-Dessaignes to Jacques Matarasso. This deluxe Japan paper edition was elegantly rebound in 1994 by Georges Leroux, in a restrained style that echoes the work’s Dadaist spirit.
Book
€1,100
Gracq, Julien
Au château d'Argol
Julien Gracq’s debut novel, issued by José Corti, sets a gothic castle on the Breton coast as the stage for a charged, almost dream-logic encounter between three figures. The prose is musical and image-rich, favouring symbolic landscapes and metaphysical weather. Born near Surrealism yet distinctly independent, the book establishes Gracq’s lucid enchantment from the start. For bibliophiles this is a key title: an early Corti publication, scarce in appealing condition, and the opening note of a major twentieth-century voice. Its limited print-run and initially slow reception add to the sense of discovery. This copy is on publisher’s stock.
Book
€610
Dominique Fourcade, Pierre Buraglio · Buraglio, Pierre
Au travail ma chérie
First volume in the Préférence series: a focused encounter between Dominique Fourcade and Pierre Buraglio. The Imprimerie nationale produced an exemplary typographic edition on Rives wove, limited to 100 copies signed by both. Buraglio “illuminates” the book with spare, hand-made interventions—strokes, contours, accents—that let the page breathe. The plain wrappers in a sturdy case stress the workshop feel. This copy bears a presentation to Jacques Dauchez, adding a vivid bibliophilic provenance. A scarce, exact book where typography, gesture, and poetry hold each other in balance.
Book
€725
When a Signature Becomes Provenance
A signature confirms; a dedication connects; an association copy tells a story.
The Fragile Meaning of ‘Complet’
In auction descriptions, “complete” often sounds reassuring — but it is only meaningful when verified against the colophon, the justification, and the bibliography. For The Hidden Page, clarity begins where vague market language ends.
The Avant-Garde and the Illustrated Word
How the Twentieth Century Recast the Book as an Artistic and Ideological Medium