Un de la brigade

First edition of the French translation by Eugène Guillevic, printed in 35 copies numbered and signed in the colophon on japon ancien, ours one of the 10 hors commerce lettered copies.

Presentation copy, signed and inscribed by Hélène Iliazd to Claude Nardin in pencil in the colophon.

A rare copy complete with its folders and guards made of various papers, its folded parchment chemise with a large outward flap, and its blue cloth chemise and slipcase.

This first edition, conceived and produced by Hélène Iliazd and Ania Staritsky in memory of Iliazd, contains an unpublished poem by the Russian poet, with his autograph Russian manuscript in facsimile along with its French translation by Eugène Guillevic.

The work is illustrated with 6 original copper plates by Staritsky, including 2 double-page plates; the artist also designed the book.

We include the invitation card for the opening presentation of the book by Hélène Iliazd at the Alexandre Loewy bookshop on Tuesday 1 February 1983.

Our copy exceptionally contains a signed autograph letter from Hélène Iliazd to Claude Nardin (two pages with its envelope), concerning the distribution of the work and an invitation to the gallery opening.

The book as medium is a constant throughout Staritsky's work. Having left the USSR for France at the age of seventeen, she "then settled in Brussels in 1932, where, after completing her training at the Institut supérieur des arts décoratifs in La Cambre, she worked as an illustrator for books, newspapers and advertising." (Jean-Claude Marcadé, Dictionnaire universel des créatrices). Alongside her career as a painter and draughtswoman, she illustrated such classics as La Dame de pique by Alexander Pushkin (1947) and three volumes of Ronsard's Amours (1950). During the latter part of her life, she "perfected her mastery of collage, tirelessly engraved on zinc, copper, lithographic stones, and linoleum" (Jean-Claude Marcadé, ibid.), creating artworks mixing typography and imagery:

"In Staritsky's livre-objet, concept, gesture, composition, contrast and colour converge into one. For her, the livre-objet is the privileged space where a single sign triumphs, unfolding multiple meanings." (Jean-Claude Marcadé, "Exposition ANNA STARITSKY à l'Archipel Michel Butor à Lucinges, 2023", [website "Vania Marcadé"])

Staritsky collaborated with French poets and writers (among them Michel Butor, Eugène Guillevic, Pierre-Albert Birot, Albert Dasnoy, Jean Follain, Michel Seuphor and Pierre Restany) in the creation of bold and experimental livres d'artiste. She also returned to her Slavic roots and published several book  in Russian like this one. These also include Conjuration contre un loup-garou [Incantations Against a Werewolf] (Заговоръ оборотня, 1979), Le Dit du Malheur de la Terre Russe [The Song of Russian Land Fall] after a twelfth-century text (Слово о погибели земли русской, published 1967), and Otpusk, a text collected in the northern shores of Lake Onega, Pomorie (1971).