La femme 100 têtes.
An emblematic “collage novel” in which Max Ernst repurposes nineteenth-century wood-engraving imagery into 147 hallucinatory plates, each accompanied by a mordant, poetic caption. André Breton’s Avis au lecteur frames the experiment within Surrealism and the autonomous logic of the unconscious. This copy is handsomely rebound with the original wrappers preserved. The convergence of bibliophilic craft and subversive content makes it a key object of modern book art. For scholars it is a palpable nexus of visual culture, poetry, and montage.
Quantity
Ernst, Max
La femme 100 têtes.
1929 | Paris | Editions du Carrefour
A rare key work in a fine, careful binding with wrappers preserved—a highlight for the Surrealist bibliophile.
An emblematic “collage novel” in which Max Ernst repurposes nineteenth-century wood-engraving imagery into 147 hallucinatory plates, each accompanied by a mordant, poetic caption. André Breton’s Avis au lecteur frames the experiment within Surrealism and the autonomous logic of the unconscious. This copy is handsomely rebound with the original wrappers preserved. The convergence of bibliophilic craft and subversive content makes it a key object of modern book art. For scholars it is a palpable nexus of visual culture, poetry, and montage.
€1,950
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 900 on tinted vellum paper.
Print Run
1003
Copy Number
No. 914
Paper
vélin teinté
Product DETAIL
A feverish, fragmentary narrative unfolds through collages that make the banal collide with the fantastic. Ernst pairs found imagery with captions that continually tilt the meaning. The reader drifts among dream, eroticism, and satire. The book operates as a sequence of tableaux rather than a linear plot. The image-text interplay creates a rhythm that is playful yet disquieting.
Morand, Paul · Hugo, Jean
Les Amis nouveaux
This first separate edition of *Les Amis nouveaux* combines Paul Morand’s swift, ironic prose with nine original copper drypoints by Jean Hugo. The brief novella compresses a love triangle into the tense intimacy of a single dinner. Morand’s controlled dialogue and incisive observations reveal how rivalry can unexpectedly turn into mutual understanding. Hugo accompanies the text with a refined linear vocabulary that heightens its worldly lightness and psychological ambiguity. The bistre or sanguine tones give the prints a warm, almost intimate presence on the page. As a numbered large-paper copy on vergé d’Arches, the book has considerable bibliophilic appeal.
Illustrated Book
€260
Michaux, Henri · Bettencourt, Pierre
Arriver à se réveiller
A rare first edition of Arriver à se réveiller, written by Henri Michaux in the tremulous post-war years. The text unfolds as an inward journey toward lucidity, where sleep and waking mirror each other. Printed and published by Pierre Bettencourt in his own workshop, the edition’s small run preserves the work’s intimacy. The title-page vignette, a linocut by Bettencourt, sets a spare, rhythmic visual key that amplifies Michaux’s vigilant, vulnerable tone. This copy is handsomely bound in brown morocco with balsa boards by Miguet, a tactile nod to lightness under tension. For bibliophiles, it is an exemplary union of poetry, craft, and experiment. The volume embodies the independence of the post-war small press and Michaux’s radical sensitivity.
Illustrated Book
€680
Char, Rene · Stael, Nicolas de
Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé
*Arrière-histoire du poème pulvérisé* is a later illustrated edition of a key text in which René Char looks back on the genesis and inner background of *Le Poème pulvérisé*. Published in 1972 by Imprimerie Union, it opens with a colour frontispiece by Nicolas de Staël. The pairing of Char and de Staël is especially charged: two post-war voices, each seeking concentration, clarity, and rupture in his own medium. This copy is one of only six hors commerce copies on Arches and is signed. The autograph presentation inscription to Doctor Marcel Zara, with poetic quotation and October 1972 dating, makes it a deeply personal copy.
Illustrated Book
€920
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