THE ARTIST'S BOOK: CREATIVITY, ANCESTRAL KNOW-HOW AND RARE

 

I contribute, through the dimension of my publishing house founded in 2008, to renew contemporary bibliophilia by combining unpublished poems by today's authors and original iconographies by artists, while favoring the know-how of book craftsmen to produce an original, rare and precious artist's book.

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In a spirit of high standards and conviviality, I meet and solicit authors and artists to initiate an artist's book project. After choosing the text, together with the artist, I immerse myself in the unpublished poem (prose, verse...), choose the typeface and create the layout of the text. Most often in-text, I aim to obtain a balanced and harmonious dialogue between text and iconography. The structure and format of the book favor its manageability for an intimate relationship with the amateur of fine books.

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From the very first books, I favored the ancestral know-how of the Imprimerie Nationale and the craftsmen of the book for the composition of the texts, the printing on a typographic press and the shaping. The printing technique on a typographic press allows a relief imprint of the character which gives the touch a sensual dimension which is added to that of the velvety quality of the art paper. The shaping, entrusted to expert hands, is particularly delicate and requires a great deal of dexterity.

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Heavy-weight art paper (Velin BFK Rives or Moulin du Gué), often used single-sided, offers artists a medium suitable for all kinds of techniques: carborundum engraving, photography, digital printing, painting: watercolor, gouache, acrylic - pencil, charcoal, pastel, stencil, cutting, addition of materials: pigments, sands, volcanic earth, plants, wax, pollens...

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The artist intervenes on each copy of the edition. The original plastic works are generously distributed throughout the book, offering a universe in which everyone can let themselves be seduced.

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UNIQUE ICONOGRAPHY MAKES EACH BOOK AN ORIGINAL WORK OF ART

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The original edition is printed in few copies, between 30 and 45 copies, sometimes less. Each artist's book is numbered and signed on the colophon by the author and the artist and presented in a box or slipcase.

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Little known to the general public and wishing to democratize this still "confidential" medium, I develop videos of "reading by the author or author and leafing through the book" to discover here and on the YouTube channel to give access to the greatest number of these rare and precious works.

 

Françoise Maréchal-Alligand, Founder of Editions d'art FMA