Customer Reviews

Une Semaine De Bonte: A Surrealistic Novel in Collage

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This collage/story book has a dark, almost sadistic tone. There is richness in the mood of this work. It is busy - there is lots going on within the images and the flow that seems to have some type of plot. Lots of macabre images. The dark undertone is a very popular theme used in art today - in its many forms. I think that any true artist who mingles with this quality would bow their head to this work. While looking through this book, I listened to the contemporary album "Angels of the Universe", and it went well together. This work is a no-go for those who are sensitive to horror stuff and who get fixated on a freightning image. Needless to say by now, there is not much joliness here. For those who do not know, Max Ernst was a great painter - and is known for his surrealist paintings above all.

It figures that a couple months after I hunt up a copy, this becomes readily available.

It's a fascinating book. The collages are made of illustrations from lurid French novels popular at the time. The edges of the different cut and pasted pictures look seamless, and Ernst has a great design sensibility. The introduction is useful, if short.

The surrealist aesthetic toward women--that is, surrealist art (including that by women) constantly shows female figures, generally nudes, as victims or in suffering--is particularly visible here, probably helped by the source matter. It's significant that the major female artists involved in the movement, such as Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Dorthea Tanning, tended not to produce much until they had been seperated from the heart of the movement for years. It's the major flaw in the movement's thinking, but that doesn't stop this from being an intriguing book for occasional contemplation.

The original title pages are reproduced in facsimile and translated.

One of the best books I own. Inspirational, in a way -- like mind taffy. Something about the pictures and the little bit of text makes you want to make connections. Like life itself. Forster said: "Only connect." Absolutely fantastic.

I found a copy of this in a museum in Berlin last year and not a day has gone by that I haven't opened it up to stare at the images and the mad, deliciously nightmarish stories they tell.

If you're looking for inspiration, you can jar something loose in your head with this beautiful, inexpensive book. This legendary collage masterpiece remains so obscure that most poets & artists aren't even aware of its existance. What does it all mean? I sure don't know but it makes me feel strange in the pit of my stomach. A wild one, kids!

Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM