La Pierre Rosette (The Rosetta Stone)

Didier Mutel

La Pierre Rosette (The Rosetta Stone)

Orchamps, FR

Atelier Didier Mutel

2015, no. 15 of an edition of 50, signed and dated by the artist

Eau forte etching on copper, printed in black on Arches paper. Printed at a 1.1 scale with its ancient precursor and contains three original alphabets designed by Mutel. Object description provided by bookseller Gerald W. Cloud.

This work excites me as it draws a direct line from then to now with lineage to the Rosetta Stone. Engraver, intaglio printer, and professor Didier Mutel creates artists’ books and engravings. In this work, he emulates the arrangement of the Rosetta Stone with three sections, from top to bottom: the names of Mutel’s pantheon of artists including Joseph Kosuth; titles of artworks; and a prose poem by Mutel. The Atelier Didier Mutel traces its history to the oldest engraving workshop in France, one of the establishments chosen to print plates for the Description de l’Égypte.