Le chien roi
Le chien roi brings Michel Butor and Pierre Alechinsky together in a compact illustrated publication from the Repères / Cahiers d’art contemporain series. The book belongs to that late twentieth-century zone where artist’s book, gallery publication and literary image-essay overlap. Butor, one of the great renovators of the French novel and a tireless writer with artists, finds in Alechinsky a partner for whom line, writing and image are always in motion. The title is simple and enigmatic at once: the dog becomes king, sign, fable animal and occasion for a playful shift of power. The book appeared in Paris in 1984 from Daniel Lelong and comprises 41 illustrated pages. It is not a monumental deluxe edition, but a clear, carefully published encounter between two figures who understood the book as a site of collaboration. For The Hidden Page, its importance lies above all in the dialogue between postwar literary experiment and Alechinsky’s graphic poetics.
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ALECHINSKY Pierre
Butor, Michel
Le chien roi
1984 | Paris | Daniel Lelong
Le chien roi is a compact but meaningful collaboration between Michel Butor and Pierre Alechinsky. The publication gathers their shared interest in sign, movement, fable and book-space in a clear cahier format. As a first edition from Daniel Lelong, it is a valuable document within the postwar tradition of the artist’s book.
Le chien roi brings Michel Butor and Pierre Alechinsky together in a compact illustrated publication from the Repères / Cahiers d’art contemporain series. The book belongs to that late twentieth-century zone where artist’s book, gallery publication and literary image-essay overlap. Butor, one of the great renovators of the French novel and a tireless writer with artists, finds in Alechinsky a partner for whom line, writing and image are always in motion. The title is simple and enigmatic at once: the dog becomes king, sign, fable animal and occasion for a playful shift of power. The book appeared in Paris in 1984 from Daniel Lelong and comprises 41 illustrated pages. It is not a monumental deluxe edition, but a clear, carefully published encounter between two figures who understood the book as a site of collaboration. For The Hidden Page, its importance lies above all in the dialogue between postwar literary experiment and Alechinsky’s graphic poetics.
€300
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-8 (Octavo) approx. 20 × 26 cm
Edition Particulars
Regular first edition; no numbered deluxe issue or signature is mentioned in the supplied description.
Inscription
No inscription
Product DETAIL
Le chien roi is not a conventional story with a developed plot, but an illustrated text-image publication around a title motif: the dog as king. Butor’s text likely approaches this motif through association, reflection, fable-like displacement and play with signs. Alechinsky’s images accompany that movement by making the dog appear not merely as an animal, but as a graphic character and sign-figure. The reader therefore follows not a plot, but a set of relations between word, image, authority, animality and imagination. The 41 pages form a compact composition in which text and illustration alternate and reinforce one another. The work belongs to a poetics in which the book is a space of passage rather than a linear narrative. Its thematic core lies in the playful elevation of an ordinary animal into an emblematic figure.
Waldberg, Patrick · Ernst, Max
Aux Petits Agneaux
A artist’s book resulting from the collaboration between writer Patrick Waldberg and surrealist master Max Ernst. This first edition includes 19 original lithographs printed on luxurious vélin d'Arches. Published in Paris in 1971 in a limited edition of 174 copies signed by both author and artist, and presented in a custom publisher’s box.
Illustrated Book
€2,200
Bédouin, Jean-Louis · Hallart, Guy
L'arbre descend du singe
L'Arbre descend du singe is a beautifully illustrated edition that highlights the collaboration between the poet Jean-Louis Bedouin and the artist Guy Hallart. The work, published in a limited edition, is characterized by a rich dialogue between poetry and image, where the visual compositions reflect the dreamy and often cryptic nature of Bedouin's texts. The book is a tangible testament to the artistic symbiosis between the two creators and offers a unique insight into a creative dialogue from the mid-1970s.
Illustrated Book
€700
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.