BONA, illustrator. André Pieyre de MANDIARGUES. ~ Critiquettes. Montpellier: [Imprimerie de la Charité for] Fata Morgana, 1967.
8vo (212 × 130 mm), pp. 54, plus etched frontispiece by Bona, signed and numbered by her in pencil 29/37 hors commerce copies. Original printed red wrappers. Edges slightly creased, but still very good. Half-title inscribed: ‘pour Lise, (”Qu’une femme ait le courage d’être paradisique, c’est très bien”) Un souvenir de tous les paradis que nous attendons de la vie prèsente - et avec l’affectueuse amitié de André P.M. [and in her hand] et de Bona. (1er nov. 1967)’.
First edition, number 29 of 37 hors commerce copies (total edition 297 copies), inscribed by author and artist, with the fine etched plate printed by G. Leblanc signed by Bona. Critiquettes reproduces his short essays or prefaces, many reproduced from the Nouvelle Revue français. Beginning with a chapter on Bona (with whom Mandiargues would be reconciled and remarried to), there follow essays on surrealists Unica Zürn and Dorothea Tanning, as well as on Bellmer, Hundertwasser, Gail Singer, Baj, Jean-Jacques Lebel and Francisco Toledo.