Editions Illouz / Rob Swigart Edition ~ France / California
(Claire Illouz and Rob Swigart)

La Bièvre
By Joris-Karl Huysmans
France: Editions Illouz / Rob Swigart Edition, 2005. Edition of 50.

10.68 x 5.87"; 8 folios. Set by URDLA in Villeurbanne, France, on BMK Rives paper. Illustrated with seven original engravings by Claire Illouz. Text (French and English) on facing pages. Original French translated by Rob Swigart and Danielle Trudeau. Slipcased. Signed and numbered by the artist.

In 1890, Huysmans published this expanded version of an article that originally appeared in 1878. This is a new translation into English by Rob Swigart and Danielle Trudeau.

Rob Swigart: "La Bièvre is a lengthy prose poem, an extended elegy for a corrupted and lost piece of wild landscape. This bilingual edition is illustrated with seven engravings by French artist Claire Illouz, who uses the tormented texture of sugar aquatint on zinc plates to enhance the decadent atmosphere of Huysmans' text.

"From its source not far from Versailles the Bièvre [a river, at least once worthy of that classification] loops through the 13th arrondissement of Paris. Over the centuries it has been gradually driven underground and today almost nothing remains visible within the city limits, though one can still walk along stretches running through lush vegetation to the south of the city."
$475