CANAILLES. AUTOMONOGRAPHIE SUPERTEMPORELLE. TOMES I & II. 1964. ONE OF 300 COPIES, DEDICATED TO ROPS AND DORS BY LEMAITRE

Paris: s,p, (Lemaitre), 1964
Two volumes offered together. Uniformly 27 x 20.8cm, both are unpaginated (approx 100pp and 200pp respectively) plus pictorial wrappers. First edition. Artist book/hypergraphic novel from one of Lettrisme’s founders. These are the true first edition – with Lemaitre typically binding together different stocks of papers (some better reproduced than others as issued). This is one of 300 numbered copies and is a rare lettriste publication with Lemaitre’s own stamp indicating that it has originally come from the artist’s own collection. It is unusual that both volumes are available together as here. Various images and items are tipped into the pages including a reproduction of a Christmas postcard sent by Lemaitre to the fellow Lettriste Oberto Altmann which is usually missing although the glue has pulled two small areas of the page away underneat the corners of the card on the right – but this is not immediately obvious. Slight wear and tear at the bottom of the spine of both volumes with minor cracking and volume 2 has a small tear to the right of the front cover otherwise both are very good. Also The second volume has no note of limitation but it was only produced in 320 copies (40 du tete) and this example has a dedication in red pencil on the title page to the surrealists Rapin and Dors: “avant la communication integrale, cordialement” and is signed and dated “Lemaitre 69”. Sold as a two volume set.

Price is for both volumes together