BUTOR / LAUDE / BRYEN / DOMELA / HÉLION / HÉROLD / MASSON — Estampes et livres illustrés des Éditions Brunidor, Invitation, Paris, 1973

Original personal invitation issued by Roberto and Maggy Altmann for a presentation of prints and illustrated books from Éditions Brunidor, held at 55 quai de Valmy, Paris, on 24 and 25 November 1973.

The card brings together the writers Michel Butor and Jean Laude with Camille Bryen, César Domela, Jean Hélion, Jacques Hérold and André Masson. Reduced to surnames, the participants describe Brunidor’s position between literature, printmaking and the artist’s book: writing placed beside images, and individual practices reorganised through publishing.

Éditions Brunidor had been founded in New York in 1947 by Robert Altmann. Its early activity included portfolios involving major Surrealist artists, while later publications developed through sustained collaborations between artists and writers. In 1969 the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris presented the press within Le Livre comme œuvre d’art, recognising the illustrated book as a form in its own right.

Four years later, this invitation returns that publishing programme to a private address. The phrase invitation personnelle de la part de remains uncompleted: an administrative space left open for the person through whom the card would circulate.

Offset-printed invitation on white card stock, 13.5 × 10.5 cm. Pale grey and orange typography to one side; reverse unprinted. Condition: very good. Light age toning, faint handling marks and minor corner and edge wear.

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