Les Jeux de la Poupée. Illustrés de Textes par Paul Eluard
Bellmer, Hans. Eluard, Paul
Paris. Les Editions Premières. 1949
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Hans Bellmer's Surrealist masterpiece 'Les Jeux de la Poupée.'
From the edition limited to 136 stamp-numbered copies on Vélin Crèvecoeur du Marais, with this one of 120 signed by Bellmer in pencil; 6 hors commerce nominatif lettered copies were also issued.
The 'Jeux de la Poupée' is preceded by Hans Bellmer's preface entitled 'Notes au Sujet de la Jointure à Boule'. Bellmer's text, written in 1938, was translated from the German with the help of Georges Hugnet before it was reworked in 1946 for its incorporation here. The photographs were taken in 1936 and 1937 but publication of the book was delayed by the Second World War. Each of Bellmer's 15 original photographs (together with the vignettes for the title and the front wrapper) is hand-coloured and faced with a Surrealist text by Paul Eluard; it is the combination of Bellmer's extraordinary photographic vision and Eluard's limpid language that gives the book its haunting power.
'Les constructions et les photographies de Hans Bellmer datent de 1936 et 1937. La préface écrite en 1938 a été traduite en collaboration avec Georges Hugnet et remaniée partiellement par l'auteur en 1946. Paul Eluard a écrit les textes en 1938.' (From the note on the verso of the title).
'I tried to rearrange the sexual elements of a girl's body like a sort of plastic anagram. I remember describing it thus: the body is like a sentence that invites us to rearrange it, so that its real nature becomes clear through a series of endless anagrams.' (Hans Bellmer interviewed by Peter Webb, The Erotic Arts, London, 1975).
[Parr / Badger I 107].
From the edition limited to 136 stamp-numbered copies on Vélin Crèvecoeur du Marais, with this one of 120 signed by Bellmer in pencil; 6 hors commerce nominatif lettered copies were also issued.
The 'Jeux de la Poupée' is preceded by Hans Bellmer's preface entitled 'Notes au Sujet de la Jointure à Boule'. Bellmer's text, written in 1938, was translated from the German with the help of Georges Hugnet before it was reworked in 1946 for its incorporation here. The photographs were taken in 1936 and 1937 but publication of the book was delayed by the Second World War. Each of Bellmer's 15 original photographs (together with the vignettes for the title and the front wrapper) is hand-coloured and faced with a Surrealist text by Paul Eluard; it is the combination of Bellmer's extraordinary photographic vision and Eluard's limpid language that gives the book its haunting power.
'Les constructions et les photographies de Hans Bellmer datent de 1936 et 1937. La préface écrite en 1938 a été traduite en collaboration avec Georges Hugnet et remaniée partiellement par l'auteur en 1946. Paul Eluard a écrit les textes en 1938.' (From the note on the verso of the title).
'I tried to rearrange the sexual elements of a girl's body like a sort of plastic anagram. I remember describing it thus: the body is like a sentence that invites us to rearrange it, so that its real nature becomes clear through a series of endless anagrams.' (Hans Bellmer interviewed by Peter Webb, The Erotic Arts, London, 1975).
[Parr / Badger I 107].
[42 leaves; pp. 82, (i), (i)]. Small 4to. (252 x 194 mm). Half-title with publication details verso, printed title with mounted vignette photograph (matching that for the front wrapper) with note and copyright verso, 9 leaves with 'Notes au Sujet de la Jointure à Boule' illustrated with 9 vignette diagrams in black, leaf with mounted original hand-coloured photograph and 14 mounted original hand-coloured photographs each with preceding leaf numbered I - XIV with text by Eluard verso, final leaf with justification; sheet size: 246 x 192 mm. Original publisher's black wrappers with mounted vignette photograph (matching that on the title), small pink title label to spine and pink bandeau, both with text in black.
#45942
