About the cover:

Full-grain binding Turquoise calf, irregularly applied or recessed pieces of calf in various colours such as beige, light green or black on both covers and spine, spine title lengthwise in fine dark blue lettering; natural cut, hand-stitched capital; board-to-board mirror made of grey calfskin, the flyleaf is the front cover made of marbled paper with gold embossed title.

Chemise with turquoise calfskin for spine and splint, cover of light green marbled paper, lined with turquoise suede; slipcase with leather-lined opening and covered with green marbled paper.

Zum Inhalt:

Paul Éluard: Duty and Worry

Poems followed by ‘Le Rire d'un autre

Mit einem Holzschnitt-Frontispiz von André Deslignères

Nr. 103 of 200 copies on Arches laid paper nr. 6 copies on old Japanese paper

From A.-J. Gonon, Paris 1917

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.