Raymond Roussel

Back on November 7, I mentioned the illustrations to Raymond Roussel's New Impressions of Africa, and how they were designed to reference the nature of the unopened (uncut) spreads. Here's a good article about Roussel by Eric Banks in Book Forum from 2011. And here are some of Henry Zo's images. I disagree with Chris Mullen, the website's writer, when he contends that the illustrations were made to be visible only after the pages were opened with a paper knife. On the contrary, they were made to reference the act of opening the pages of books, and also made to confound convention. Roussel was truly a mad genius. He invented the recreational vehicle and he never wore a collar twice. He was so rich that not only did he never work for money, he could not imagine ever needing to work for money.