I have been practicing the art of the limited edition for 29 years and I know I am finally reaching the end of the journey of each book when I find myself knocking at the door of the bindery of Pierre Ouvrard, master bookbinder. He works wonders finding the covering that will not only protect the book from light and dust, but also make it presentable. The binding is a wrapping, a skin, a meeting point between the content and the potential reader. The box hides the text and the images, but it also announces them and reveals their spirit. In the case of A Thousand Hooded Eyes, a frogskin with a silver medallion inserted into the cover will arouse the interest of the reader, who will discover a visual and poetic world of cold-blooded animals.

HE TRADITION OF LE LIVRE D’ARTISTE IS FRENCH. The French bibliophile does not have the same requirements as the English book lover. He wants a grandiose book and puts the emphasis on the illustrations, which overrun the whole page or even overflow onto two pages and blend in with the text. Because of their large size, these might be called “albums” rather than books. Now I would like to quote the words of Matisse. In a letter he wrote:

The book should not require derivative illustrations to be complete. The artist and the writer should act in concert: separately, but in parallel. The drawings should be a plastic equivalent of the poem. I will not say first and second violins, but an ensemble concertant.

HY DO I PRODUCE THESE BOOKS? For me, a Québécois artist, there is no more fertile ground than the multifaceted work of producing a livre d’artiste. It is in this work that I fulfill my destiny, my raison d’être, and my way of being in the world. I experience a great sense of satisfaction in producing these books and thus making my own contribution to the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.