June 1, 2008

Richard Aeschlimann, Le Regard Géologue


I picked up this oddity at a used bookstore a few years ago.

Le Regard Géologue (1973, L'Age d'Homme) includes drawings from 1969 to 1972 by the Swiss artist Richard Aeschlimann. L'Age d'Homme seems like a damn fine publisher (with many books by Aeschlimann), though I haven't yet found a good place to purchase their books without being killed on international shipping.

I know Roland Topor is a fan of Aeschlimann (but I don't know much about either of them). Look at Topor's own artwork to The Tenant and you can see the similarity in their artwork. [The Tenant, a 1964 novel, was recently reprinted by Millipede Press with an intro by short-story master Thomas Ligotti. Millipede seems to have fine taste so I will check out this book and their other publications. At their site I learned that the image that haunted me as a kid is by the artist Don Brautigam.]

Here are some samples from Le Regard Geologue.

I keep meaning to post about the great Polish writer and artist Witkacy:


This one is Gorey-esque but disturbing in its own way:


Many of the images feature naked body parts (usually separated from the body!):



Self-portrait from the book's back cover:

2 comments:

  1. Thanks again for letting me discover this great artist! L'Age d'Homme is an important publisher in France, not a big seller but very important. They published one of my favorite writers, Scepanovic and many other uncommon ones...

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  2. Hey, great post, I found some kick ass letters of him for a science fiction encyclopedia. Bur I was wondering. Do you have any web site to check out more of his work?. Or his biography? Thanks, and great job on your blog. Bonito día.

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