livre d'artiste

livre d'artiste (artist's book). A type of luxury illustrated book in which each illustration is printed directly from the surface on which the artist has worked (etching plate, lithographic stone, etc.). The genre was originated by the dealer Ambroise Vollard, a great promoter of printmaking, and the first example is regarded as Parallelement (1900), a book of poetry by Paul Verlaine illustrated with lithographs by Pierre Bonnard. Vollard commissioned about 50 such books, the artists involved including Braque, Maillol, Picasso, Rodin, and Rouault, and he was soon followed by other publishers, among them Kahnweiler, who in 1909 issued Apollinaire's L'Enchanteur pourrissant with wood engravings by Derain. The livre d'artiste has continued to flourish particularly in France, but notable examples have also been produced elsewhere, for example Six Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (1969), with etchings by David Hockney.

Usually livres d'artiste are published in unsewn sheets, rather than bound (this means that they can be specially bound to the owner's requirement or dismantled for individual display of particular illustrations). The number of copies in an edition typically ranges from about 20 to 300. Printing is done by specialist establishments, using carefully selected paper, inks, and typefaces, and the artists and publishers often go to great lengths to secure the exact results they require (for an example, see SKIRA).