Facile

Paul Éluard, Man Ray and Guy Lévis Mano came together around five poems and twelve photographs to create a landmark of illustrated publishing and to mark the revival of eroticism in the art of the 1930s. In Man Ray’s nudes, the body is never shown in its entirety: the whole head appears only once, the eyes never. “It is because of the integration of the images with the text that this book has been fundamental to modernism and a source of inspiration for generations of graphic designers” (Parr & Badger).

This cult Surrealist book forms, according to Parr and Badger, a perfect ménage à trois, uniting poetry, photography and typography, the whole celebrating love and the body of Nusch. “This small book has come to be regarded as one of the iconic French photobooks of the 1930s by virtue of its inclusion in many exhibitions devoted to the Surrealist movement […] Man Ray’s pictures of Nusch are appropriately simple, either done in high key tones, often solarized, or mysteriously dark and backlit” (Parr & Badger).

A very fine copy, in perfect condition.