What is it about?
The article considers books produced by Pierre Lecuire (1922-2013) with French artists including Nicolas De Stael. Although they look to be very dependent on their material status, the article argues that Lecuire was actually most concerned with their contribution to his overall oeuvre. Virtual book projects that never came to fruition are therefore just as important as the material ones in existence, and this shifts understanding of Lecuire's contribution to literary and artistic Modernism.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The French artist's book is very reliant on its material support, so Lecuire's contribution to this important twentieth-century genre nuances our understanding of it once his work is considered to privilege virtual, unrealised projects.
Perspectives
I discovered Pierre Lecuire through my interest in André Du Bouchet and the journal L'Éphémère (1967-72) which published Nicolas De Staël's response to Pierre Lecuire's draft of the text for a shared project on which they were working. I am interested in the difference between Lecuire's insistence on books that were never produced and the importance for L'Éphémère authors of the material fragment.
Dr Emma RH Wagstaff
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Pierre Lecuire: assessing the coexistence of the material and the virtual in his Modernist publishing project, Word & Image, April 2016, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02666286.2016.1143768.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
