Une Semaine de Bonté

"Une Semaine de Bonté" (A Week of Kindness) is a graphic novel and artist's book composed in collage by Max Ernst, made during a three week visit in Italy around the time of Hitler's rise to power in Germany. The novel was first published in Paris in 1934, as a series of five pamphlets of 816 copies each. [...ism, Sims Reed Rare Books, 2008]

The novel consists of found images from Victorian encyclopedias and novels, cut up and re-organized into 182 montages which represent a kind of dark, surreal world. One such image includes a series of bird-men fleeing an unidentified terror, a giant hand reaching out of a window above.The work is the third of three similarly-themed artist's books covering similar territory; "La Femme 100 Têtes" (The woman with one hundred heads, or The woman with no heads) 1929, and "Rêve d’une Petite Fille qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel" (Paris, 1930).

"Each of these books projects recurrent themes of sexuality, anti-clericalism and violence, by dislocating the visual significance of the source material to suggest what has been repressed." [Oxford Art Online, Max Ernst essay by Malcolm Gee]

The five books are titled individually as follows;
* Premier Cahier: Dimanche / Elément: La Boue
* Deuxième Cahier: Lundi / Elément: L'Eau
* Troisième Cahier: Mardi / Elément: Le Feu
* Quatrième Cahier: Mercredi / Elément: Le Sang
* Cinqième Cahier: Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi / Eléments: Le Noir / La Vue / Inconnu

Notes

External links

* [http://laboiteaimages.hautetfort.com/archive/2005/05/30/une_semaine_de_bonte.html La Boîte à
] Images from the work