La Femme Visible [The Visible Woman].

inscribed by dali

The first edition of Dali's first surrealist work.

The 'femme visible' refers to Dalí's wife Gala, who inspired him to create the book and to whom the work is dedicated. Her portrait is placed opposite the metallic covers to provide a reflection of her. It is Dali's manifesto for the paranoiac-critical method, a surrealist technique which consists of the artist invoking a paranoid state, resulting in a deconstruction of the psychological concept of identity, subjectivity thereby becoming the primary aspect of the artwork.

The present example is numbered '2/9 auteur' on the justification and signed by the artist on the half-title. The fragile red and metallic jacket which is often found damaged and torn is in remarkably fresh and unrestored condition.

Limited edition, numbered 2/9 'auteur' on the justification, seemingly out of series, inscribed by Dali on the half-title in ink 'hommage de l'auteur Salvador Dali'; 4to (19 x 22 cm); 8 illustrations hors-texte, of which one is a photolithographed portrait of Gala, one an original etching, three reproductions of Dali's drawings and three photographic prints; loose as issued in the original aluminium foil paper wrappers covered in red printed glassine, very minor loss of wrappers to spine, a very good copy.

Michler-Lapsinger 4; Launay 288.