French Literature Reviews - 2026

Wifredo LAM – Livres d’artiste/ Artist’s Books. Dialogues avec/with Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Aimé Césaire, René Char, Jacques Dupin, Édouard Glissant, Alain Jouffroy, Ghérasim Luca, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Jean-Dominique Rey. Jean Khalfa (ed.)
Art and Visual Culture

Wifredo LAM – Livres d’artiste/ Artist’s Books. Dialogues avec/with Antonin Artaud, André Breton, Aimé Césaire, René Char, Jacques Dupin, Édouard Glissant, Alain Jouffroy, Ghérasim Luca, André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Jean-Dominique Rey

Jean Khalfa (ed.)

Contributions by Isabelle Chol, Charlène Clonts, Dorota Dolega-Ritter, Carlos Fonseca, Édouard Glissant & Jean Khalfa

At the heart of Wifredo Lam’s extraordinarily protean printmaking are the artist's books created in collaboration with the leading poets of his era. To illuminate their complexity, this volume explores the history, underlying ideas, and techniques behind these artistic partnerships, offering a specialist's unique insight into the joint creative output of the artist and writer—a dialogue that also intimately engages other figures, including engravers, printers, and publishers. Readers will, we hope, bear witness to a living, utterly distinctive body of work as it takes shape through these encounters, where the lives of the protagonists and the spirit of an extraordinary epoch are equally at stake.

At the heart of Wifredo Lam’s extraordinarily protean engraved work are artist’s books created with the greatest poets of his time. To shed light on their complexity, this book presents the history, thought, and techniques behind these collaborations and the singular perspective of a specialist on the joint work of the artist and a writer, dialogues that also intimately involve other actors: engravers, printers, and publishers. The reader will be, we hope, the witness of the living, absolutely singular work, in the process of being made in encounters where the lives of the protagonists are as much at stake as the meaning of an extraordinary era.

The genre of the artist book occupies a distinctive space at the intersection of visual art and literature, bringing together painters, poets, and master printers in collaborative publishing ventures. Throughout the twentieth century, such collaborative editions emerged as privileged sites for aesthetic experimentation, where typographic design, original engravings, and poetic texts engaged in a direct material dialogue. This tradition reflects a broader modernist and avant-garde practice in which visual artists frequently partnered with writers to produce limited-run publications that challenged conventional hierarchies between text and image, transforming the traditional book format into an integrated physical artwork.

This volume edited by Jean Khalfa examines Wifredo Lam's collaborative artist books created alongside major literary figures of the era. With contributions from Isabelle Chol, Charlène Clonts, Dorota Dolega-Ritter, Carlos Fonseca, Édouard Glissant, and Jean Khalfa, the publication explores the history, underlying ideas, and techniques behind these artistic partnerships. Readers interested in twentieth-century printmaking, modernist collaboration, and the intersections between Caribbean aesthetics and European avant-gardes may find this detailed examination relevant to their studies.