Mr. Knife, Miss Fork

1931. ERNST, Max. Mr. Knife, Miss Fork. Text by René Crevel, translated by Kay Boyle. Including 19 photograms of frottages by Max Ernst. 8vo, 176 x 116 mm., bound in the original full black cloth, elaborately gilt and embossed designed by Ernst on covers with additional hand-painting, in an elegant half morocco box by Mercher. Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1931. A celebrated and rare surrealist collaboration. This is one of the special 50 copies on Hollande paper. The frontispiece is signed at the bottom by Max Ernst and the half-title signed by Crevel. For these special copies the front cover of the binding has been hand painted and the rear cover has been gilt, supposedly by Max Ernst. The nineteen photograms illustrating the book were produced from Max Ernst's frottages, created by rubbing translucent paper on top of a textured surface/image. Using this "impression" on the special paper, Ernst then shot light through the thin paper onto photosensitive paper underneath, creating a type of photographic negative. These were then reproduced in the form of negative photograms with the assistance of Man Ray. The resulting white lines and white designs set off against the pitch-black background set the perfect surrealist stage for Ernst's powerful and unsettling imagery. Without the original slipcase, slight restoration to the head of spine, but a fine bright copy, rarely found thus. PROVENANCE: the celebrated library of Daniel Filipacchi. Rainwater, Beyond Surrealism 30. Roth, The Book of 101 Books 66-67. Spies & Leppien, Max Ernst Das Graphische Werk 13. Spies & Rewald, Max Ernst A Retrospective, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005, # 107.