Lisières du devenir
Published in Paris in 1963 by Jean Hugues, Lisières du devenir is a masterful collaboration between poet Lucien Scheler and visual artist Raoul Ubac. More than a book, it is a fully realized livre d’artiste—a fusion of poetry and visual art that epitomizes the French avant-garde's embrace of material experimentation and poetic depth in the post-war years. Here, text and image converse with striking intensity, resulting in an object as tactile as it is conceptual.
Quantity
Scheler, Lucien
Ubac, Raoul
Lisières du devenir
1963 | Paris | Jean Hugues
A haunting, tactile encounter between poetic intuition and graphic materiality, Lisières du devenir is a landmark of 20th-century artist books.
Published in Paris in 1963 by Jean Hugues, Lisières du devenir is a masterful collaboration between poet Lucien Scheler and visual artist Raoul Ubac. More than a book, it is a fully realized livre d’artiste—a fusion of poetry and visual art that epitomizes the French avant-garde's embrace of material experimentation and poetic depth in the post-war years. Here, text and image converse with striking intensity, resulting in an object as tactile as it is conceptual.
€2,200
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-4 (Quarto) approx. 25 × 32 cm
Edition Particulars
First edition, deluxe issue
Print Run
90
Copy Number
0
Paper
Papier d’Auvergne (Richard de Bas) + suite op Japon Impérial
Inscription
Signed by the Author,Signed by the Illustrator
Product DETAIL
Scheler’s verse unfolds in fifteen elliptical sections, tracing the margins of transformation, memory, and dissolution. His language is dense and syncopated, evocative rather than descriptive, and structured around the idea of the lisière—the boundary or edge—as a metaphor for becoming. This is poetry meant to be read slowly, its rhythms resonating like echoes across a shifting landscape.
Char, Rene · Stael, Nicolas de
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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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