Mon premier voyage: Tour du monde en 80 jours (My first voyage: Around the world in 80 days)
<p>This book reprises the 1872 fiction novel <em>Around the World in Eighty Days</em> by Jules Verne. In his version, Jean Cocteau recounts a similar journey that he took with his lover Marcel Khill. Filled with detailed destination descriptions, Cocteau’s account reads more like a love letter to the world than an action-packed adventure log like Verne’s novel.<br /> Mary Reynolds’s binding evokes both the practical and the beautiful elements of Cocteau’s voyage. When laid open, the endpapers show a full map of the globe, which readers can refer to as they follow Cocteau’s travels from one end of the world to the other. The front and back covers, however, feature a sideways map of the west coast of Scotland and an upside-down print of the southwest islands off of Turkey, capturing the disorientation that Cocteau may have felt as he navigated the world while battling opium addiction.<br>This binding is one of Reynolds’s more literal interpretations of a book’s content, while still engaging with the Surrealist techniques of juxtaposing text and image, and utilizing found material. Reynolds may have used maps taken directly from her and Duchamp’s studio walls to bind Cocteau’s novel, a decision similar to the broken teacup handle she stumbled upon and bound into the spine of Raymond Queneau’s novel <em><a href="http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections">Saint Glinglin.</a> </em></p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1936
- Medium
- Quarter vellum with gold stamping; paper-map sides and endpapers; original paper covers bound in
- Dimensions
- H.: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Mary Reynolds
Artist
Textile
Mary Reynolds was an American artist and bookbinder active in Paris during the mid-twentieth century. Working primarily in hand-bound volumes and paper arts, she developed a distinctive practice that merged fine art with the craft tradition of bookbinding. Her work bridged Surrealist circles and the material culture of the book object itself. This profile will be expanded as more verified source material becomes available.
Full artist profile →More
More by Mary Reynolds
Saint Glinglin: précédé d'une nouvelle version de Gueule de Pierre et des Temps mêlés: Roman (Saint Glinglin: Preceded by a New Version of Stone Mouth and Mingled Time)
1949 · Full green morocco binding; horizontal onlay across covers and spine; broken china teacup handle attached by onlay to spine; title stamped in gold on front cover; author stamped in gold on back cover; marbled endpapers; original paper covers bound in
Exercices de style
1947 · Quarter black calfskin binding with marbled paper; calfskin label on cover with title stamped in gold; author stamped in gold on spine; top edge colored; marbled endpapers; original paper covers bound in
Le Diable au corps: Roman
1947 · Chêneuarter vellum binding with green paper; morocco spine label with author and title stamped in gold; decorated endpapers; original paper covers bound in
Le Foyer des artistes
1947 · One-quarter vellum binding, sides covered with red paper speckled with gold stars; original paper covers bound in
Le surmâle: Roman moderne (Superman: A Modern Novel)
1945 · Full black morocco binding with onlay; metal corset stay attached to spine; title stamped in gold on spine; mauve endpapers printed with wire-mesh pattern; original paper covers bound in
Loin de Rueil (Skin of Dreams)
1944 · Full red morocco binding with raised bands; author and title stamped in gold on spine; endpapers of trial proofs for Marcel Duchamp's 1935 cover of Minotaure; original paper covers bound in
Record
Verified by Watts Index- Artist
- Mary Reynolds
- Year
- 1936
- Medium
- Quarter vellum with gold stamping; paper-map sides and endpapers; original paper covers bound in
- Dimensions
- H.: 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1936-047763
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified