8 - Antonin ARTAUD. Galapagos. The Islands at the End of the World. Original etchings by Max Ernst.

Antonin ARTAUD. Galapagos. The Islands at the End of the World. Original etchings by Max Ernst. Paris, Louis Broder, 1955. Small 8vo, loose-leaf, illustrated hardcover, slipcase, and illustrated gray paper case from the publisher. A beautiful book illustrated with 10 original etchings by Max Ernst, including four full-page prints, and a hardcover adorned with a large etching. Limited edition of 135 copies on Rives vellum, signed by the artist (no. 71). Despite the reservations sometimes expressed about the overly “polished” books produced by Louis Broder—reservations he himself echoes—François Chapon nevertheless judges that “this masterfully crafted work is by no means insignificant. The contribution of the painters, as solicited by their architect, yields dazzling successes”—foremost among which is *Galapagos*: “Max Ernst’s sardonic invention is perfectly suited to evoke the Galapagos, a land preserved by its climatic conditions, a primeval reserve where Antonin Artaud sees the embodiment of the ‘forbidden and lost’ world of childhood. […] We must pay tribute to Broder for having been the architect of such a fruitful collaboration.” Included is an additional print, on gray paper, of the two black-and-white compositions illustrating the slipcase, as well as the brochure. (Chapon, *Le Peintre et le Livre*, pp. 253–254 and 301.—Coron, 50 Illustrated Books Since 1947, 1988, no. 17.—The Artist and the Book, 1860–1960, no. 101.)