BOURNAZEL, Diane de. ~ Les Yeux au ciel. [Marliac and Paris, 2024].
4to (265 × 170 mm), 8 leaves, each fully illuminated on both sides in manuscript, goauche/watercolour, collage with elaborately cut edges and windows between pages. Bound by Armelle Guegant in marbled paper covered boards (the paper by Marianne Peter), matching slipcase with manuscript titles on paper discs.
Unique artist’s book in manuscript. Les Yeux au ciel contains one of the densest concentrations of De Bournazel’s unique symbolism to date, its sixteen pages bearing a plethora of human, animal and hybrid figures (some prominent, others slyly hidden) and a vortex-like mise en page. Like several other works by this artist, it explores the boundary between the conscious and unconscious, and expresses an elastic sense of time and space. Using the unique quality of the successively-turned book page as her primary medium, De Bournazel encourages her ‘readers’ to look forwards, backwards and inwards with cut windows opening unexpected sightlines and pathways through the codex.