despalles overcomes the distance that still exists between the German and French language areas. Thus the artist's books of the edition are mostly conceived from the outset as bilingual, French and German, or even trilingual. As a rule, they appear as first publications, always with unpublished translations. In them, artists and poets from different aesthetic categories meet.
Etel Adnan /
Johannes Strugalla
Seasons-1
The 64 short stanzas of the first part of “seasons” by Etel Adnan. Adnan’s writing creates unexpected links between the visual, historical, mythological and metaphysical levels of being. This text is much more than beautiful poetic aphorisms featuring California’s spring. She creates a forceful sense of imagery in each sentence suddenly fracturing into pieces full of ambiguity and premonitions of danger and destruction.
The trilingual typography refl ects the multiple aspects of the poem. Johannes Strugalla’s artwork is made of drawings and woodcuts printed in colors on both sides of a translucent Japanese paper. Free lines which only follow their own dynamic, entering in a dialog with the text. So they create remarkable complementary shapes and emphasize the autonomous but uncertain reality of an esthetic work.
Poem in 64 parts by Etel Adnan. Trilingual: English, French, German.
French translation by the author and Françoise Despalles,
German translation, drawings, woodcuts, book-design by Johannes Strugalla,
digital realization by Françoise Despalles.
108 pages, 33 × 21 cm, hard cover. Text as Ultrachrome ink print on Arches,
16 original woodcuts and 16 drawings (Ultrachrome) on Japanese (Zairei) paper.
Edition: 70 signed and numbered copies.
Mainz / Paris 2010
