Dip Your Finger into the Book about Max Ernst’s Books

Abstract

By paying close attention to the material body of the book, Max Ernst’s (1891–1976) oeuvre extends beyond literature and represents a significant contribution to the artist’s book in the 20th century. In his book design, Ernst emphasises the importance of the body of the book and thus seamlessly puts theory into practice. By drawing on this curatorial project as well as the current scholarship on the materiality of the book, the article focuses on two topics: first, it presents an overview of Max Ernst’s largely unknown poetic and essayistic work, including the discovery of a document that was lost for 65 years. Second, it is a case study of the material body of a book about books. By quoting and transforming Ernst’s book designs, the graphic designers implemented a very surprising postmodern design concept.