Monique Boucher / Abdallah Benanteur — L’air pauvre — Les Aliscans, Paris, 1971

Launch invitation for L’air pauvre
Offset print on card stock
Les Aliscans, 57 rue de Rennes, Paris
Event date: Friday 19 November 1971, 18:00–21:00
Condition: good vintage condition; visible age toning, handling wear, light creasing and lower corner stress/wrinkling consistent with period paper history

Original invitation issued for the presentation of L’air pauvre, a collaborative publication bringing together texts by Monique Boucher with illustrations by Abdallah Benanteur. Held at Les Aliscans, a Paris bookshop at 57 rue de Rennes, the event announced the deluxe illustrated edition (l’exemplaire de tête) alongside recorded material by Edwine Moatti.

Abdallah Benanteur (1931–2017) occupied a compelling position between painting, poetry and artist-book culture. Born in Algeria and later based in France, his work moved between abstraction and calligraphic structures, often maintaining a close relationship with writers and publishers. By the early 1970s artist books and literary collaborations increasingly operated as parallel exhibition spaces rather than supplementary material.

The object sits somewhere between bookstore notice, literary announcement and exhibition residue. It compresses several systems into a small support: author, illustrator, voice recording, place, date, circulation. Rather than documenting an artwork, it formats an encounter around one. Printed matter acting as a temporary structure.

Original period item. Shipping and handling included in listed price.