ENTRELACS, OU LES DIVAGATIONS D'UN BURINISTE

Paris: Lucien Scheler, 1975. FIRST EDITION. No. 29 OF 110 COPIES, with ONE OF 24 "EXPERIMENTAL SUITES" OF SIGNED ETCHINGS (Copy S), printed on various papers, bound in, plus an unbound SECOND "EXPERIMENTAL SUITE" OF 30 ETCHINGS printed on paper in various shades, ALL MARKED "SUITE ESSAI" ["Test Suite"] IN PENCIL AND SIGNED BY FLOCON. 320 x 250 mm. (12 1/2 x 9 3/4"). 69, [5] pp.; [2] leaves, followed by plates. One volume and one portfolio..
STRIKING KHAKI BROWN CALF BY RENAUD VERNIER (stamp-signed on front doublure), front cover with jagged "split" down the middle, connected by four entrelac "straps" interlacing three times, the olive drab suede free endpaper visible beneath this entrelac, rear cover with edges of "split" cut on front cover tooled in thin black lines, smooth spine with title embossed in vertically stacked letters, khaki brown calf doublures, olive drab suede endleaves, all edges gilt on the rough. Original embossed wrappers bound in. Housed in the matching calf-backed chemise and slipcase. Tan linen clamshell box housing second suite of plates. With 30 ORIGINAL ETCHINGS in the text, AND TWO ADDITIONAL "EXPERIMENTAL SUITES," one bound in and one in a separate clamshell box, all SIGNED in pencil by the artist. ◆Short, faint scratch to spine, but in near-mint condition.

These 30 "ramblings of an engraver" cover subjects ranging from the letter "S" and double-"E's" to icosidodecahedrons and openwork walls--like that on the front cover of the binding by Maître d'Art Renaud Vernier. Each rambling is illustrated with a complex interlacing design by engraver, historian, teacher, and humanist intellectual Albert Flocon; variations on these designs, with colors and other additions, appear in the additional suites of plates. Born near Berlin as Albert Mentzel, Flocon (1909-94) was drawn to the Bauhaus movement in the 1920s, and studied with Josef Albers, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky. In the 1930s, he and his Jewish wife fled the anti-Semitism of Germany, settling in France, where he found work in advertising and became intrigued by the Surrealist movement. During German occupation in World War II, his wife and eldest daughter were deported to Auschwitz and murdered; his two younger children, hidden by neighbors, fortunately survived. Flocon decided to renounce his German surname and adopt that of his French grandmother. He exhibited with the Surrealists in 1947, and began teaching drawing at the École Estienne in 1954. In 1964, he was named to the chair in Perspective at the École des Beaux Arts. His friendships with contemporary philosophers and scientists led him to explore the topic of perspective in various disciplines; he was particularly passionate about the links between art and geometry. He shared this interest with his friend and brother in art, M. C. Escher; the "experimental suites" here call to mind Escher's work. Binder Renaud Vernier enrolled at the École Estienne in 1968 to study bookbinding. After graduating in 1972, he did work for P.-L. Martin, Georges Leroux, Monique Mathieu, Germaine de Coster, and Michel Richard before establishing his own studio in Paris. He moved his workshop to Aix-en-Provence in 1983, remaining there until his 2012 retirement. Known for his purity of decoration and for harmonizing his bindings to the contents of the book, Vernier was sought after by bibliophiles. He was named a Master of Art in 2000, both for his bookbinding and for his teaching; his pupils included binders Anne Dorgeuille and Louise Bescond..