About the cover:

Full-grain binding Maroon cowhide, irregularly shaped, variously grained, vertical leather strips on both covers, partially yellowish coloured, deeply incised borders, horsetail inlay front and back, ochre embossed long title on smooth spine, barbed edges, brown hand-stitched capital. Board-to-board mirror of the same leather with cut grain, flyleaf emerald-coloured suede. Half-leather chemise covered with dark brown Linson and lined with light brown suede; leather-bound slipcase covered with smooth paper.

Relieur: Jean Lipinski Doreur: Philippe Fié

About the content:

André Frénaud: Les Paysans

With two etchings, one of them in colour by André Beaudin, signed by author, artist and engraver

Ex. No. 99 of 100 on Grand Vélin d'Arches

Jean Aubier éditeur, Paris 1951 23 poems with beautiful texts, fitting to the rural and contemplative life of a farmer in the countryside.

About the artist: Even as a child, Monique Mathieu felt a fascination for paper and its feel. Her mother was an amateur bookbinder. After studying art history, she learnt how to bind books and opened her own studio in Paris in 1973. Her designs are inspired by nature or abstract letter forms. An attractive tactility develops with reliefs, indentations and incisions. ‘Calm boldness’ and ‘poetic imagination’ have brought Monique Mathieu to the forefront of French bookbinding art. The appeal of the book in the simplicity of its physical elements is coupled with her vivid sense of poetry and painting.

Her marriage to the poet André Frénaud (1907-1993) further fertilised this inclination. Today she works as a poetry publisher herself.