L’Opium
*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.
Quantity
Jarry, Alfred
Dado
L’Opium
1984 | Montpellier | Fata Morgana
A small yet intensely charged artist’s book, in which Jarry’s visionary early text meets Dado’s engraving with singular force.
*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.
€680
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
One of the 72 copies on vélin d’Arches.
Print Run
72
Copy Number
No. 35
Paper
vélin d’Arches
Inscription
No inscription
1
Edition Particulars:
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Print Run:
Condition Report:
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Copy Number:
Condition Report:
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Product DETAIL
In this short hallucinatory text, Alfred Jarry leads the reader through an opium dream that almost immediately breaks away from ordinary reality. The narrator begins in a feverish state and feels his astral body separating from his earthly one. He then enters an immense mortuary space where corpses, water, ice, and movement merge into a strange rhythm. He climbs glistening stairways, encounters an attendant among the dead, and is directed onward into further chambers where poets, murderers, and bureaucratic counters coexist. He next crosses a fantastic realm of cages, animals, books, and religious or musical visions. By the end he returns to his chair and to his body, as if the entire journey had formed a circular dream. The piece is not narrative in the conventional sense, but unfolds as a sequence of metamorphoses and linked images. Its atmosphere is one of Symbolist fever, black humour, and visionary dislocation.
Tzara, Tristan · Delaunay, Sonia
Le Cœur à gaz
This spectacular bibliophile edition of *Le Cœur à gaz* merges poetry and avant-garde theatre in a visually striking object. Illustrated with twelve lithographs by Sonia Delaunay, including seven full-page plates, it showcases the collaboration between Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara and modernist artist Delaunay. The prints are based on her 1923 costume designs, evoking the radical spirit of the time.
Ill Book
€3,000
Mérimée, Prosper · Clavé, Antoni
Lettres d’Espagne
*Lettres d’Espagne*, published in 1944, marks a pivotal moment in Antoni Clavé's career and is among the most sought-after 'livres d'artiste' from the war years. The Catalan artist, having recently fled to Paris, found in Prosper Mérimée's texts the perfect opportunity to express his nostalgia and passion for Spanish culture. The 27 original lithographs burst with color and baroque energy, showcasing Clavé's legendary mastery of lithography. This specific copy is of museum-grade rarity: it is enriched with an original gouache by the master himself, as well as two complete suites of the lithographs. The combination of Mérimée's classic prose and Clavé's spirited imagery creates a visual spectacle that captures the Spanish soul in all its facets. For the discerning bibliophile, this copy represents the ultimate synthesis of unique artistry and high-end bookmaking.
Ill Book
€2,850
Reverdy, Pierre · Braque, Georges
Une aventure méthodique
*Une aventure méthodique* brings together Pierre Reverdy’s concentrated poetic prose and Georges Braque’s austere visual language. It belongs among the major post-war French livres d’artiste, where text, lithography and typography meet as equal forces. Braque contributed 27 original lithographs, supplemented by colour reproductions after his paintings, giving the volume both intimacy and monumentality. Printed by Mourlot, the celebrated Paris lithographic workshop, the book has exceptional technical refinement. This copy, on vélin d’Arches and signed by both author and artist, preserves a rare encounter between modern poetry and pictorial invention.
Ill Book
€4,850
Zürn, Unica · Bellmer, Hans
Sombre printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay.
This large and sumptuous edition of Sombre printemps brings together one of Unica Zürn’s most haunting texts and an original burin frontispiece by Hans Bellmer. Issued by Pierre Belfond as the French translation of Dunkler Frühling, it appeared when Zürn’s name had become inseparable from Bellmer’s. That proximity is not merely biographical here; it shapes the entire aura of the book, in which text and image seem to emerge from the same disturbed inner world. The deluxe issue, printed on vélin d’Arches and accompanied by an additional proof on japon nacré, gives the volume a distinctly bibliophilic status. Bellmer’s signed frontispiece does not simply decorate the text, but stands as a visual counterpoint to Zürn’s claustrophobic prose. The publication is all the more poignant for having followed so closely upon Zürn’s death, as though the book became both tribute and posthumous memorial. Within the Cahiers du Regard, it ranks among the most charged and desirable collaborations. For the collector, this copy unites literary intensity, surrealist resonance, and exceptional material refinement.
