La Main Heureuse: 10 Dessins de Pol Bury Illustrés de Textes de Marcel Havrenne
Bruxelles [Brussels]: Editions CoBRA, 1950. First Edition, First Printing.
A collection of literary aphorisms and reflections by the Belgian poet Marcel Havrenne (1912-1957), enriched with 10 illustrations by the Belgian painter and sculptor Pol Bury (1922-2005) This is one of 310 copies issued by the Belgian section of the CoBRA avant-garde art movement. Text entirely in French.
Havrenne has been called a "poet of poetry" who deconstructs words to better analyze them. He was close to the Belgian Surrealists and the CoBRA group of artists and was one of the founders of the magazine Phantomas. For his part, Bury was attracted to the Surrealists; his paintings appear to have been influenced by René Magritte and Yves Tanguy before he turned to sculpture.
Copies of La Main Heureuse (The Happy Hand) are scarce to the market. The colophon calls for the 310 copies to be numbered, but this copy is unnumbered.
PHYSICAL DETAILS: Small Quarto (9 3/4 x 7 3/8 inches; 245 x 188 mm), 22, [2] pages, in printed wrappers, with the CoBRA symbol printed on the rear wrapper (soft cover).
CONDITION: Moderate soiling to wrappers, light crease to top half inch (1.25 cm) of book, some small closed tears to page edges, light toning to some page extremities. About Very Good. Item #2948
Price: $100.00