Sombre printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay.
This large and sumptuous edition of Sombre printemps brings together one of Unica Zürn’s most haunting texts and an original burin frontispiece by Hans Bellmer. Issued by Pierre Belfond as the French translation of Dunkler Frühling, it appeared when Zürn’s name had become inseparable from Bellmer’s. That proximity is not merely biographical here; it shapes the entire aura of the book, in which text and image seem to emerge from the same disturbed inner world. The deluxe issue, printed on vélin d’Arches and accompanied by an additional proof on japon nacré, gives the volume a distinctly bibliophilic status. Bellmer’s signed frontispiece does not simply decorate the text, but stands as a visual counterpoint to Zürn’s claustrophobic prose. The publication is all the more poignant for having followed so closely upon Zürn’s death, as though the book became both tribute and posthumous memorial. Within the Cahiers du Regard, it ranks among the most charged and desirable collaborations. For the collector, this copy unites literary intensity, surrealist resonance, and exceptional material refinement.
Quantity
Zürn, Unica
Bellmer, Hans
Sombre printemps. Traduit de l’allemand par Ruth Henry et Robert Valançay.
1971 | Paris | Pierre Belfond
A rare and hauntingly beautiful copy in which text, engraving, and fate converge.
This large and sumptuous edition of Sombre printemps brings together one of Unica Zürn’s most haunting texts and an original burin frontispiece by Hans Bellmer. Issued by Pierre Belfond as the French translation of Dunkler Frühling, it appeared when Zürn’s name had become inseparable from Bellmer’s. That proximity is not merely biographical here; it shapes the entire aura of the book, in which text and image seem to emerge from the same disturbed inner world. The deluxe issue, printed on vélin d’Arches and accompanied by an additional proof on japon nacré, gives the volume a distinctly bibliophilic status. Bellmer’s signed frontispiece does not simply decorate the text, but stands as a visual counterpoint to Zürn’s claustrophobic prose. The publication is all the more poignant for having followed so closely upon Zürn’s death, as though the book became both tribute and posthumous memorial. Within the Cahiers du Regard, it ranks among the most charged and desirable collaborations. For the collector, this copy unites literary intensity, surrealist resonance, and exceptional material refinement.
€1,400
Condition Report:
In-Depth Study
References & Bibliography
Format
In-folio (Folio) approx. 30 × 40 cm
Edition Particulars
One of 150 copies numbered in Arabic numerals, with the signed frontispiece and an additional proof on japon nacré.
Print Run
170
Copy Number
No. 124
Paper
vélin d’Arches; épreuve de la gravure sur japon nacré
Inscription
Signed by the Illustrator
Product DETAIL
The narrative follows an unnamed thirteen-year-old girl growing up in a stifling bourgeois environment, where the awakening of her body is felt as both fascination and threat. The story unfolds within the enclosed world of family, school, and inner fantasy, where the child is at once curious and exposed. As her desire becomes more sharply defined, her relation to her own body, to adults, and to forbidden images grows increasingly disturbed. The text develops as a fictional autobiography in which perception, shame, fascination, and fear are tightly interwoven. What begins as a discovery of sexuality and imagination gradually turns into isolation, obsession, and psychic disintegration. The tensions accumulate until the girl sees no escape and throws herself from a window. The book is thus both an account of adolescence and a record of fatal inner escalation. Only in its final register does it become a dark meditation on desire, guilt, and self-loss, written in a voice poised between dream and confession.
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