Thirty years ago, I became drawn to Pierre Faucheux’s work after reading an article about him by design historian Richard Hollis in Eye magazine. Faucheux’s book designs for Club Français du Livre reminded me of my first book collection, which included Bradbury Thompson’s designs for the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company’s (Westvaco) annual American Classics Series.
Faucheux’s work also resonated with my own design practice at the time. From my perspective, Faucheux approached design by analyzing the elements of the entire book. He focused not only on the typical paratextual components, such as design and typography, but also on the book’s overall structure as an object—similar to how Jean-Luc Godard, a contemporary of Faucheux’s, rethought the cinematic medium.
Henri Pichette, Pierre Faucheux (design) Les Épiphanies Paris: K Éditeur, 1948. First edition.
Softcover in printed red wrap. Inside printed in black and white.
Les Épiphanies is one of Faucheux’s early book designs. According to Richard Hollis, the book’s text had been laid out in manuscript form by the author, Henri Pichette, as concrete poetry. Using this original layout, Faucheux re-pasted and re-spaced every line. Its originality consisted in its substitution of symbols for words — typographic elements and bold letters found in a printer’s typecase replaced the characters’ names.
André Breton, Pierre Faucheux (design) Les Manifestes du Surréalisme Paris: Editions du Sagittaire, 1955. First edition.
Printed black cloth wrappers with “hidden” magnifying glass.
Rachel L. Carson, Pierre Faucheux (design) Cette Mer Qui Nous Entoure Editions Le Club du meilleur livre, 1954. First edition.
Illustrated hardback binding with printed, clear dust jacket.
