j'aime la mime

OK, getting sick of looking at that fried chicken. Moving on, then. The aforementioned bookstore coughed up more than just a painting. We also found seven volumes of what looks to be a French-speaking Swiss series of artbooks from 1962. Each book presents a photo-essay on a particular art form (the cinema, the theatre, dance etc.), so that the collection as a whole offers a kind of illustrated typology of the arts at mid-century.



Absolutely stunning modernist design. There is something appealing about the stylistic uniformity of the series, the minimalist stock typeface and pared-down quasi-ethnographic presentation. Here they are in profile.



As you can see, we are obviously going to have to hunt down the rest of the books in the series. Remaining volumes are devoted to cartoons, strip-tease, opera, and "les marionnettes." It is amusing to see just what constitutes "art" in these circumstances. Strip-tease and bullfighting? At any rate, the photos really do carry the books, and I say this only partly because I cannot read the French text accompanying them. Foux de Fa Fa! Have a look at some of these images while I go find out my leotard. BG