Le chant de la carpe
A rare edition where poetry, sculpture, and sound intersect: Le chant de la carpe pairs Luca Gherashim’s text with an altuglass sculpture by Piotr Kowalski, numbered and signed with a steel stylus. Published in 1973 by Le Soleil Noir in Paris, it was printed on Offset Sirène in an edition of 300. A translucent record with “Quart d’heure de culture métaphysique,” read by the author, is inserted. The colophon bears the signatures of both Gherashim and publisher François Di Dio. The square wrappers with flaps and a box stress the book as object—meant to be read, seen, and heard.
Quantity
Gherashim, Luca
Kowalski, Piotr
Le chant de la carpe
1973 | Paris | Le Soleil Noir
A focused summit of text, voice, and matter—quiet yet radical.
A rare edition where poetry, sculpture, and sound intersect: Le chant de la carpe pairs Luca Gherashim’s text with an altuglass sculpture by Piotr Kowalski, numbered and signed with a steel stylus. Published in 1973 by Le Soleil Noir in Paris, it was printed on Offset Sirène in an edition of 300. A translucent record with “Quart d’heure de culture métaphysique,” read by the author, is inserted. The colophon bears the signatures of both Gherashim and publisher François Di Dio. The square wrappers with flaps and a box stress the book as object—meant to be read, seen, and heard.
€1,710
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-12 (Duodecimo) approx. 17 × 22 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 300 on Offset Sirène, with altuglass sculpture numbered and signed with a steel stylus; translucent record “Quart d’heure de culture métaphysique”; colophon signed by author and publisher.
Print Run
300
Copy Number
92
Paper
Offset Sirène
Product DETAIL
A meditative piece poised between poetic parable and prose poem. “The song of the carp” invokes silence, stillness, and undercurrents; the author’s voice on the record adds a performative layer. Typography and unopened leaves stage a reading ritual. The recording turns the book into a small time-based performance. With the sculpture, a triptych of word, material, and voice emerges.
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*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.
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