Sur le vif

*Une aventure méthodique* brings together Pierre Reverdy’s concentrated poetic prose and Georges Braque’s austere visual language. It belongs among the major post-war French livres d’artiste, where text, lithography and typography meet as equal forces. Braque contributed 27 original lithographs, supplemented by colour reproductions after his paintings, giving the volume both intimacy and monumentality. Printed by Mourlot, the celebrated Paris lithographic workshop, the book has exceptional technical refinement. This copy, on vélin d’Arches and signed by both author and artist, preserves a rare encounter between modern poetry and pictorial invention.

*La guerre et la paix*, published in 1954, is a monumental overview of Pablo Picasso's work for the Vallauris chapel, accompanied by Claude Roy's text. This edition by Cercle d’Art forms an essential synthesis of Picasso’s post-war humanism and his resistance to the horrors of conflict. The book contains, alongside numerous reproductions, original lithographs that expose the dynamics of his artistic process. For the bibliophile, this work is a crucial testimony to the dialogue between word and image in the early 1950s.

Hélène chez Archimède is a remarkable example of the collaboration between a poet and a visual artist, in this case the French author André Suarès and the legendary Spanish master Pablo Picasso. The edition, illustrated with wood engravings, reveals the complex interplay between word and image that culminated in the production of illustrated books in the mid-20th century. This work, originally a project by the famous art dealer Ambroise Vollard, shows the enduring relevance of classical themes, here the myth of Helen, in a modernist context. Thanks to its careful execution and the exclusivity of its print run, Hélène chez Archimède is not only a literary work but also an art object, a testament to the artisanal perfection sought by the Nouveau Cercle parisien du Livre. It represents a significant moment in the history of the modern illustrated book, where the line between illustration and autonomous art blurs. The additions to this copy, such as a menu and an announcement leaflet, enrich its bibliographic and historical value and offer a rare glimpse into its publication context.

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.