The Bald Soprano.
New York: Grove Press, 1965. First English language edition of this typographic interpretation of Ionesco’s first dramatic work, the point of origin of absurdist theater. Designed throughout by experimental typographer Massin, who was also responsible for Raymond Queneau’s Cent mille milliards de poems, in which each line of text is printed on a separate strip of paper, forming a huge exquisite corps of words/poems. These two books designs are considered the height of Massin’s output. “In his design... each character is indicated not by name, but by a line image next to the speech which he is to utter. The shape of the word is distorted so as to give emphasis to the sound of the speech. By using techniques which fall somewhere between those f the cinema and the comic strip, he ensures that, in the dialogue, the primary constituents of word and imaged are balanced in a way that heightens the meaning of the play.” (Gerald Woods et al., Art Without Boundaries, pp. 148-49). In decorated paper covered boards, with a generally very good dust jacket with a closed tear to the front panel.
$200 -
(Massin) Ionesco, Eugene.
