Le Grand Écart

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.

With *Anicet ou le panorama* (Paris, NRF, 1921), Louis Aragon delivers an early, deliberately hybrid novel written at the hinge between Dada disruption and the rise of Surrealism. The book proceeds by visions and sequences—a “panorama” in which identity, desire, and the act of looking continually shift. In this bibliophile form (“tirage de tête” reserved for NRF bibliophiles), the novel also becomes a collectible object intended for a small inner circle. This copy is specifically designated “pour le Dr. Sourdel” and numbered XLVIII, underscoring the selective, personalized nature of the issue. Published under the NRF imprint, Aragon is anchored in the literary center while keeping the book’s formal audacity intact. A key item for understanding the nervous modernity of the early 1920s.

This first separate book edition of Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard is one of the decisive moments in the history of the modern book. Mallarmé turns the page from a neutral support into an active field in which silence, white space, type size and rhythm participate in meaning. The poem appeared here in 1914 from the Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, shortly before the major typographic experiments of the twentieth century would unfold with full force. The restrained wrappers printed in black and red preserve the tension between classical French publishing culture and radical formal innovation. This ordinary copy on papier vergé d’édition represents the wider circulation of a work that must initially have seemed both enigmatic and prophetic. Even without deluxe paper or numbering, the book remains a milestone: the moment at which poetry becomes visible space. For collectors of the avant-garde, visual poetry and the artist’s book, it is a source-text.

*Poésies. 1917-1920* gathers poems from a decisive period in Jean Cocteau’s development, at the intersection of poetry, music and the Parisian avant-garde. The collection was published in 1920 by Éditions de la Sirène, a house closely associated with Cocteau during these years. The poems belong to the period of his involvement with Erik Satie, the Groupe des Six and artists connected with Cubism, although Cocteau himself resisted identification with any single movement. Marie Laurencin contributed the printed illustration for the original wrapper, giving the volume a significant visual dimension. In this copy that wrapper has been preserved within an attractive contemporary half-leather binding. Most notably, Cocteau inscribed the book to a friend named Marcelle, possibly the pianist Marcelle Meyer, potentially connecting this individual copy with the artistic circle in which the work originated.