Collection: Michel Butor

Michel Butor (1926–2016, Mons-en-Barœul) was a French novelist, poet, essayist and critic whose practice across seven decades made him one of the most prolific and formally inventive writers of the postwar period. Associated in the late 1950s with the Nouveau Roman — the loose grouping of French writers who rejected the conventions of psychological realism in favour of formal experiment and phenomenological attention — Butor quickly moved beyond the novel toward a practice that dissolved the boundaries between literary genres and between writing and visual art.

His early novels, including Passage de Milan (1954), L’Emploi du temps (1956) and La Modification (1957), established him as a major figure in French letters. La Modification, narrated entirely in the second person, won the Prix Renaudot and brought him international recognition. His subsequent turn toward the essay, the prose poem and the artist’s book reflected a deepening engagement with visual art and a conviction that writing could operate as a form of collaboration rather than commentary.

From the 1960s onwards, Butor produced an extraordinary body of work in collaboration with artists including Pierre Alechinsky, Joan Miró, Max Ernst, André Masson and many others, contributing texts to livres d’artiste, portfolios and illustrated books published by presses including Éditions Brunidor. His inclusion in the 1973 Brunidor presentation at 55 quai de Valmy reflects his central position in the French tradition of the artist’s book. His work is held in major collections internationally.