-1920 Idée

Masereel’s wordless novel, Idée: sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort was published in a limited, numbered edition of 850 copies in 1920.

Title: Idée: sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort (Idea: its birth, its life, its death)
Author and Illustrator: Frans Masereel
Date of publication: 1920
Publisher: Edition Ollendorf
Place of publication: Paris (imported from Switzerland)
Copyright: Masereel?
slipcase: No
Binding: stiff card covers
Dust Jacket: paper folded over the cover and glued to the spine
Language: French titles, etc
Paginated: unpaginated
Printed: recto
Edition: limited
Printed from the original blocks: yes
Description: 83 woodcuts

The Story

The protagonist (Masereel) starts out with a mental block, gets an idea – represented by a naked woman with black hair stepping out of his head. After considering the idea, he sends it out to the public where it causes social disruption. By the time the idea returns, the protagonist has another idea; represented by a naked woman with white hair. He hangs the black haired woman on the wall and sends the white haired woman into the world.

An Idea springs from the mind of the Thinker and goes out into the world. She is naked, female, radiant, a pocket Venus embodying all ideals, and she finds herself in the mean streets of a twentieth century city – among politicians and fat cats, torturers and striptease audiences, who take the Idea and use it for their own ends, or reject and try to destroy it.

review in The Independent

878 copies

25 ex. on Japon Impérial, #1 to 25, numbered by hand and signed, #1 includes a set of the 83 original drawings;
3 ex. h.c. on Imperial Japan, marked A, B, C, signed;
50 ex. on Hollande van Gelder, #I to L – Roman numerals in pencil; NOTE: no requirement that these be signed but they often are;
800 ex. on voluminous English, #1 to 800; NOTE: no requirement that these be signed but they may be.

Dedication Au Docteur Louis Lava

Frans’ mother remarried in 1897 to Louis Lava, a liberal Flemish francophone and free-thinker. Lava undoubtedly had a decisive influence on the young Frans, who lost his father at the age of five.

The physician, with strong Socialist convictions, and the family together regularly protested against the appalling working conditions of the Ghent textile workers.
Ysebaert Louisseize Arts