Les Folies françaises

Name: Les Folies françaises
SKU: 29042
Author: Jean-Clarence Lambert & Gianni Bertini

Paris, 1964-1966.

1 vol. (400 x 475 mm) of [41] p. and [14] plates, mounted on stubs. Red box calf, covers decorated with two molded resin plaques painted in colors by Gianni Bertini, with, embedded in the front cover, an electronic system providing sparkling illumination, yellow calf spine bearing the title in large green letters, doublures and endleaves of lemon-yellow suede split leather, cover, box (Gianni Bertini-Loutrel).

Limited to 8 copies. This is one of the two hors commerce copies, reserved for the author and the artist, signed in green pencil by Bertini and in ink by Lambert. This is the latter's own copy. A unique copy enriched with an exhibition poster devoted to the painter (Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, May 1963) and with 14 additional plates, mounted at the end: 4 paintings with collages (three of them signed), two drawings (one signed), and 8 prints (three reworked and signed), including the model for the illustration used for the design of the molding for the covers.

First edition, first printing of this iconic book, entirely handmade, with a color illustrated and laminated cover and 26 leaves, including 16 pages printed in pochoir and 20 pages illustrated in serigraphy or lithography, some laminated with movable elements.

Bertini’s copy — the other of the two hors commerce copies — is held at the Beinecke Library (Yale University, U.S.A.), in an identical binding executed by Loutrel.

Only three copies were originally assembled by H.-D. Mercher, and subsequently, following the exhibition devoted to Gianni Bertini and Les Folies françaises at the Librairie Denise Weil in December 1993, by Patrick Loutrel. Loutrel’s constructions were better designed than the earlier ones, which were more fragile and less suited to the monumental compositions. The first versions worked by means of batteries, concealed behind a removable window on the back cover. The later ones worked by means of an electrical power supply.

This copy is complete with its transformer.

A cult book of Mec’Art (Mechanical Art), founded by Gianni Bertini (1922–2010), Les Folies françaises is one of the most striking French artists’ books of the 1960s, both for its use of brightly painted plastic moldings replacing the leather of traditional bindings, and for its graphic conception based on the détournement of images from the women’s press of the period, notably from the magazine ELLE.

“Probably the finest deluxe illustrated French book fully characteristic of its era” (J. Espagnon–P. Le Bret, Des livres, Une histoire des années 60, 1993).

The binding exists in other color variants (green or blue); this copy is complete with its original XXL slipcase, made by Patrick Loutrel.

#29042

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