080925
august september 2025
Graphic novel…
Non-fiction
Essay
Linguistic
Nature
Arts… 20
Performing Arts
Fine arts
Photography
actes sud bd
Paola Guzzo and Cécile Rousset , Nous sommes la voix de celles qui n’en ont plus. 6
Maxim Cain, Démontagner. 7
actes sud bd - virages graphiques
Dimitri Tsekenis, La Timidité des arbres. 8
Rosalie Stroesser and Vincent Farasse, Des vies multiples. 9
G r aphicnovels.
Paola Guzzo and Cécile Rousset
Nous sommes la voix de celles qui n’en ont plus
Histoire d’un collectif à l’origine des collages contre les féminicides d’après une enquête de Paola Guzzo et Romane Pellen
[We Are the Voice of the Voiceless – The story of the collective behind the poster pasting campaign against femicide, based on an investigation by Paola Guzzo and Romane Pellen]
In late August 2019, a campaigner put out a call to women on Instagram to meet up for a first collective pasting of anti-femicide slogans on the walls of Paris. She didn’t know any of them, but in the space of a few weeks the movement had spread like wildfire. The journalist Paola Guzzo has been part of the campaign since the outset and has kept a dairy and collected the first-hand accounts of the ‘pasters’. She met Cécile Rousset, the winner of several awards for her animated documentaries, and the two women decided to tell the story of a movement that has left its mark on this rapidly changing age of ours. Their starting point is the trial, constantly postponed over the course of five years, of four women charged with violently resisting the police officers who intervened after they had pasted the slogan ‘Liberty, Equality, Impunity’ on the façade of a bank in Nantes, Brittany, on 14 July.
The journalist Paola Guzzo, who has worked for Radio France, France Bleu and Nova among others, has been part of the movement from the outset. She has followed the development of the movement, kept a diary and reported on the story of this feminist collective.
Cécile Rousset is an illustrator and maker of animated documentaries (Le C.O.D et le coquelicot). She is also behind the Arte series Elle vit à Paris
Maxim Cain Démontagner
[Coming Down from the Mountain]
Up in the mountains, pastoralism is still alive and well. But it does not afford some sort of ideal refuge, cut off from the world below. Neither is it one long siesta for the herder beneath a gentle sun and beside a gushing crystal-clear stream, with a docile herd for company and a little flute carved from bone in his calloused hand that he plays to summon his dog when he awakes. It’s not that at all, in fact, and yet Maxim Cain has stuck to his task of herding his ewes in the Pyrenees for the last decade.
Maxim Cain is a comic strip illustrator and a shepherd who takes his sheep up into the Pyrenees in the summer. His work has been published in the review Bento (which won the prize for best alternative comic strip at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2022), and along with Léo Duquesne he is the creator of the bitter-sweet La mer est calme comme un lac comic strip published in the bi-monthly La Disparition
Dimitri Tsekenis
La Timidité des arbres
[The Shyness of Trees]
There are branches atop the dense forest canopy that never touch each other – a behavioural phenomenon that botanists call the ‘shyness of trees’. César moved to a city a few months ago to study at college, but he is suffering from insomnia and an ill-defined malaise that prompts him to abandon his classes and cut himself off from his fellow students. His rare outings are mainly confined to the grocer’s, and he can’t help noticing that the flora is gradually invading the streets, eating away at the street furniture and redrawing the city map. The roots penetrate his little flat too, raising up the floor, and foliage is soon decorating the walls and ceiling. Under such circumstances, how is he supposed to find his own path in life?
Dimitri Tsekenis was born in Paris in 1995 and is currently based in Angoulême. He studied illustration and animation but also engraving, which has given rise to the screentone quality of his drawings, reminiscent of etchings. La Timidité des arbres is his first comic book.
Rosalie Stroesser and Vincent Farasse
Des vies multiples
Carnets d’une jeune actrice
[Multiple Lives - Notebooks of a young actress]
This story takes place behind the scenes and before the curtain is raised, in that period preceding the theatrical illusion. Jeanne, a young introvert who carries her life around with her in a big bag that never leaves her side, is hoping to get in to a highly rated drama school and become an actress. From her auditions to her first classes, the comedies of error and dramatic asides, and the little lies and the make-believe, her initiation to the boards prior to the glare of the limelight is imbued with a personal authenticity. A case of being oneself before donning the apparel of somebody else.
Vincent Farasse is an author, theatre and film director, actor and scriptwriter. His plays are published by Actes Sud-Papiers. Since 2015, he has been giving regular talks about the art of acting to drama school and university students. Following on from Les Représentants (2022), Des vies multiples. Carnets d’une jeune actrice is his second comic book.
Rosalie Stroesser is a comic strip artist and illustrator for the press (New York Times, Le 1 hebdo, etc.). Following on from Shiki (2023), Des vies multiples. Carnets d’une jeune actrice is her second comic book.
Nonfiction…
Essay. 12
Olivier Bessard-Banquy, Éloge de la petite édition littéraire 12
Lionel Astruc, Activiste d’élite 12
Éric La Blanche, Oser la colère 13
Pierre Leroy, Albane Roussot and Karine Banderier, Petit manuel de démocratie vivante 13
Anne-Marie Lo Presti and Sabine Oppliger, À l’école du vivant 14
> questions de société. 15
Pauline Jarroux, Sandrine Lefranc, Antoine Mégie and Anne Wyvekens, Un verdict sans appel 15
Linguistic. 16
Stéphane Gendron, C’est du pipeau ! 16
Nature. 16
> mondes sauvages. 16
Vinciane Despret , Le Chez-soi des animaux (new edition). 16
David Grémillet , Les Discrètes 17
> voix de la terre. 17
Estelle Castro-Koshy, Et fleurit l’espérane 17
Sophie Swaton, Voyages hybrides 18
> système terre. 18
Valérie Guillard, Être, faire et avoir 18
Dominique Bourg, Leçons des limites planétaires 19
10 × 19 cm / 256 pages
September 2025
Olivier Bessard-Banquy
Éloge de la petite
édition
littéraire
[In Praise of Small and Independent Literary Publishers]
To do justice to the sheer vitality and diversity of the publishing houses that have contributed in a tangible way to the richness of French literature, and that are currently spearheading what might aptly be termed a ‘renaissance’ in French publishing, Olivier Bessard-Banquy has necessarily cast his net wide. He presents a panorama of the industry from the late 19th century until the present day, acquainting us with the men and women who have put their own personal stamp on their distinctive book catalogues and celebrating their remarkable intellectual, artistic and typographical innovations. He explores the intersections between significant historical events and the evolution of philosophical and aesthetic perspectives, as well as the technical advances in the last century or so that have had an impact on printing and reproduction. He examines the primordial role of bookshops, but also the growing importance of new means of distribution and dissemination. And above all he highlights the crucial contribution of small independent publishers to the preservation of ‘bibliodiversity’, that vital source of nourishment for the imagination and the thinking mind. In the process, he implicitly points us down the avenues that may lead to the new publishing adventures of the future.
Olivier Bessard-Banquy is a university lecturer and specialist in the contemporary publishing world and its associated professions at the University of BordeauxMontaigne. Co-author of L’Édition française depuis 1945, edited by Pascal Fouché and published by the Cercle de la Librairie in 1998, he published La Fabrique du livre with Du Lérot in 2016.
Lionel Astruc
Activiste d’élite
Méthodes et victoires de Lucie Pinson contre la finance fossile
[Champion Campaigner – The keys to Lucie Pinson’s victories against the fossil fuel financiers]
Amid a prevailing atmosphere of defeatism, there is nevertheless one campaigner who is achieving decisive environmental victories. Her name is Lucie Pinson and she has become a genuine icon in the NGO world. In this book, she takes us behind the scenes of her battles against huge fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Uganda. How does she do it? She exposes the realities of the industry and she threatens the reputations of some its most powerful funders around the world. And though she is also willing to negotiate with them and assist them, she is prepared if necessary to occupy their premises and deposit several tonnes of coal on site.
Lionel Astruc has written some twenty books on environmental, social and humanitarian issues. His Traque verte. Les dernières heures d’un journaliste en Inde (2017) and L’Art de la fausse générosité La fondation Bill et Melinda Gates (2019) are published by Actes Sud. He lives in the Vercors region in the south of France.
Lucie Pinson is the founder of the NGO Reclaim Finance and is based in Paris.
Éric La Blanche
Oser la colère
Éloge d’une émotion rebelle par temps de crise écologique
Préface de Pablo Servigne
[Dare to be Angry – In praise of the rebellious spirit in times of environmental crisis, with a preface by Pablo Servigne]
We all bear our share of responsibility for the environmental crisis – so goes the deceptively egalitarian mantra of those who would have us forget that some bear much more responsibility for it than others. The worst culprits are the powerful of this world: the individuals who run the industrial and financial multinationals that do so much damage to people and nature, who own media companies, finance the lobbying of governments, fail to pay their taxes, influence major policy decisions, and claim we could save the planet with a few paltry gestures towards protecting the environment when they are in fact ruining it as they make their billions. The threat by a bunch of criminals to definitively destroy our habitat and the future of our children demands that we take the gloves off. Confronted by the madness of those who lord it over us, we have the right – indeed the duty – to get angry. There is no contradiction between heartfelt emotions and rationality – anger can be wise, and our ire is necessary. We are demanding urgent measures and justice.
A journalist, author, scriptwriter and lecturer, Éric La Blanche specialises in the domains of ecology, feminism and modes of dialogue between the scientific community and the general public. He is also behind the Bridget Kyoto videos – a vintage icon of environmental humour – and creates the educational comic strips for the Secours Catholique’s ‘Idées reçues sur les pauvres’ series. He lives in Paris.
Pierre Leroy Albane Roussot and Karine Banderier
Petit manuel de démocratie vivante
[The Little Manual of Living Democracy]
Citizens need to involve themselves in the next municipal elections in March 2026. It will probably be the last time that successful candidates will have the chance to introduce new paradigms and inventive new perspectives before a series of irreversible upheavals. This manual is designed to give citizen candidates in the next elections the tools they need in terms of practical guidelines, levers and resources to exploit, and contacts and networks to tap into.
Pierre Leroy is currently in charge of local government initiatives to promote the environment, economy and culture of the Hautes-Alpes region in south-eastern France. He also presides over Seve, an organisation that promotes the use of renewable energies locally, and served as a mayor in the region for twelve years.
Albane Roussot is an agronomist, a facilitator in the fields of collective intelligence, hybridity and cooperation, a researcher into forms of governance, and an environmental hacktivist who assists local authorities and collectives with their transition projects.
Karine Banderier, a teacher and researcher in the social science domain, is interested in the role played by the emotions and people’s sense of their own capacity for action when they commit to projects requiring creative and transformative changes of approach. All three live and work in the south-eastern Hautes-Alpes region but are often on the move for their work.
16 × 22,5 cm / 288 pages September 2025
11,5 × 21,7 cm / 256 pages
2025
Anne-Marie Lo Presti and Sabine Oppliger À l’école
du vivant
S’éduquer par et pour la nature
Préface de Ernst Zürcher
[The School of the Living World – Learning from and for nature, with a preface by Ernst Zürcher]
This essay reflects on how our relationship with nature and the living world can be conducive to learning insofar as it can operate as a space for social transformation, leading us to examine human and non-human relations in our shared environment and reconnecting us with the Earth. It draws on the experiences of teachers, nature lovers and children to offer the poetic and sensory material we need to imagine a different world that we can inhabit in a more harmonious way. It is addressed both to professional educators and to a wider public who are interested in green citizenship issues and our relationship with our environment and the living world.
Sabine Oppliger is a researcher at the Haute École Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud in Switzerland. A researcher in the field of creativity and a teacher who places an emphasis on narrative approaches and conceptualisation in the transmission of manual techniques, she is also herself a painter and sculptress who seeks poetic collisions between the sensory, the cultural, the ecological and different art forms.
Anne-Marie Lo Presti is a researcher and lecturer at the Haute École Pédagogique du Canton de Vaud. As a historian and anthropologist, she is interested in how narrative approaches can be used as tools for learning and emancipation. A qualified coach in change management and professional development, she addresses human and environmental health issues, connecting the process of looking after oneself with looking after the world.
Pauline Jarroux, Sandrine Lefranc, Antoine Mégie and Anne Wyvekens
Un verdict sans appel
Enquête sur le procès des attentats de novembre 2015
[A Definitive Verdict – An analysis of the November 2015 terrorist attacks trial]
This book is both an account of the six-month trial (running from September 2021 until June 2022) of those accused of perpetrating the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015, and a deeper analysis of proceedings. It is an account in that the authors attended the hearings on a daily basis and took note of every detail. But it is also an analysis because they deploy their skills as researchers to reveal what may not be obvious at first sight: how the accused were not necessarily mere ‘killing machines’ who had been radicalised; how the victims perhaps had more to recount than their trauma alone; how the lawyers on both sides went about their usual business in circumstances that were anything but usual; and lastly, how other narratives – legal, political, sociological and biographical – remain possible even after the definitive verdict.
Pauline Jarroux is a doctor of social anthropology who works on how terrorism is prosecuted, particularly in France.
Sandrine Lefranc is director of research in political science at the CNRS/Sciences Po Paris. Her research focuses on official approaches to commemoration, transitional justice after mass political violence, and restorative justice.
Antoine Mégie runs the political science department at the University of Rouen. He is interested in the role of the law in combating terrorism, the prosecution of terrorism, and the paths that lead to political violence.
Anne Wyvekens, emeritus director of research at the CNRS, has approached judicial institutions from various angles: local security policy, justice for minors, justice and cultural diversity, and justice in matters of religion.
13,5 × 21,5 cm / 336 pages September 2025
> Questions de société
r14,5 × 21 cm / 216 pages September 2025
> Linguistic
Stéphane
Gendron
C’est du pipeau !
Le jargon de la musique et des musiciens
[Hitting the Right Note –The jargon of music and musicians]
This is a book that trumpets the important place occupied by musical expressions and vocabulary in the French language. To express the different ways of playing music on different instruments and instrument types, employing a wide variety of styles and techniques, musicians of all kinds have developed an extensive range of idioms that have entered the everyday written and spoken language. This is not a one-way street but rather an ongoing interaction between music and other domains of life, such as sport, medicine, justice and food. And the author, rather than producing a simple dictionary of terms and expressions, seeks to identify the mechanisms through which turns of phrase have become colloquial or proverbial. Etymology is a key tool in this process, as it can restore an original meaning that has sometimes been forgotten and situate words and expressions in the social and cultural context in which they first appeared.
Stéphane Gendron is a linguist specialising in the study of proper nouns. He is president of the Société Française d’Onomastique and managing editor of the Nouvelle Revue d’Onomastique, as well as being a pianist himself and the director of a group of music schools in the Loire Valley region.
10 × 19 cm / 48 pages
September 2025
Vinciane Despret
Le Chez-soi des animaux
Préface de Stéphane Durand et Vinciane Despret
[New edition]
[Animals at Home – With a preface by Stéphane Durand and Vinciane Despret]
Le Chez-soi des animaux is being published to mark the revival and anniversary of the opening to the public of the Branféré zoo and botanical garden in the Morbihan region of Brittany. In this special place where the interconnectedness of the living world is tangible, adults and children can stay overnight and immerse themselves in the lives of the animals and plants, observing the interactions between them and becoming aware of humans’ own distinct niche within this ecosystem. Branféré Park blends the exotic and the local, creating the biodiversity expected of a natural haven but featuring an unexpected range of species. It is an experience that will help every child to understand that our relationship with the living world needs to change.
Vinciane Despret is a philosopher and psychologist who teaches at the University of Liège. Since taking an interest in ethology, she has orientated her research towards the philosophy of science. She is the author of several internationally acknowledged works exploring our relationship with the animal world.
David Grémillet
Les Discrètes
Rêves de tortues marines
Préface d’Alice Ferney
[Discreet Creatures – Sea turtle dreams, with a preface by Alice Ferney]
Over the course of 250 million years, sea turtles have already survived two mass extinction events, and they are now facing a third. They may look vulnerable, but they have held out against the dinosaurs, sharks and saltwater crocodiles. Might they also outlive humans? Sailors of the past would haul them aboard their boats in untold numbers, and in modern times they were made into soup for gourmets. Hundreds of thousands of them are still drowning every year after getting caught up in fishing nets. These discreet creatures just keep on going, however, and some populations are showing signs of rallying from the carnages of the past. What is the secret of sea turtles’ vigour and endurance, at a time when humankind seems intent on destroying itself? In this worldwide investigation, we follow these ‘beautiful swimmers’ from the equator to the polar regions and meet the men and women who are fighting tirelessly to protect them. In the process, we learn about their long history on Earth, their remarkable physical prowess, their transoceanic migrations and their life cycles, which can span a century – a dreamlike immersion that is also an ode to slowness.
David Grémillet is an oceanographer and director of research at the Centre d’Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive in Montpellier (part of the CNRS). Actes Sud has previously published his Les Manchots de Mandela (“Mondes sauvages”, 2021) and Dans les bras du poulpe (“Les chroniques de Libération”, 2024). He is based in Montpellier and enjoys travelling when his research duties allow.
Estelle Castro-Koshy
Et fleurit l’espérance
À la rencontre de la littérature
aborigène et îlienne du détroit de Torres
[And Hope Blossomed – Exploring Aboriginal and island literature in the Torres Strait]
Followed by a bilingual poetry anthology translated from Australian English by Estelle Castro-Koshy and Philippe Guerre
40,000 years of history recounted through a contemporary Aboriginal literature of exceptional vitality. A literary tour de force and a ground-breaking publishing venture that introduces readers to an ancient literature that is still very much alive today. For the first time in the history of francophone publishing, we are offered an immersion in the effervescent universe of Aboriginal literature, affording us a completely different conception and perception of the Australian continent and the history of its inhabitants. This book analyses how Aboriginal authors celebrate the resilience, richness, beauty and importance of indigenous cultures, while condemning the colonialism that Aborigines have had to contend with for more than two hundred years.
Since obtaining her PhD in Aboriginal literature in 2007, Estelle Castro-Koshy has pursued her research into the Aboriginal literary corpus, developing friendships with many authors in the process and becoming an acknowledged expert in this domain. She also makes documentaries with and about writers in Polynesia.
11,5
September 2025
>
Sophie Swaton Voyages hybrides
Une philosophe rationaliste au contact de réalités non ordinaires
[Hybrid Travels – Rationalist philosophy in the face of the irrational]
A specialist in political philosophy and economics, Sophie Swaton found herself experiencing paranormal and extra-sensory phenomena. After doctors gave her mental health the all-clear, she decided to undertake an in-depth investigation into indigenous cultures to arrive at a better understanding of what was happening to her. Is it possible that the real world is deeper, richer and more complex than the world perceived by Westerners? Could it be that our Western culture confines us to only perceiving the superficial varnish of reality? Do techniques exist for opening up the doors of perception?
Sophie Swaton is a philosopher and economist. A researcher and lecturer at the University of Lausanne, she has conceptualised the notion of an ecological basic income (Pour un revenu de transition écologique, PUF, 2018) and put it into practice through the non-profit Fondation Zoein, which she set up in Switzerland in 2017. Her most recent publication is a commentary on a work by Charles Fourier, Détérioration matérielle de la planète (PUF, 2024). She lives and works in Lausanne, and travels regularly to France.
17 × 24 cm / 64 pages September 2025
> Système Terre
Valérie Guillard Être, faire et avoir
Penser la sobriété matérielle par la justice sociale
[Being, Doing and Having - Conceptualising material restraint through social justice]
What can we do collectively to stop destroying the Earth system that keeps us alive? In this work of political philosophy, Valérie Guillard, an expert in consumer attitudes towards waste, analyses the work of Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize for economics, with a particular focus on his concept of capabilities. This provides a springboard for identifying and illustrating empirically what aspects of being, doing and having could contribute to a form of consumption that is both restrained and socially equitable. This book is ultimately a reflection on what every component of human society (individuals, regional authorities, companies, organisations and political players) can do to put an end to the erosion of the Earth system on which our survival depends. This is the third title in the ‘Système Terre’ collection edited by Nathanaël Wallenhorst. Valérie Guillard is a lecturer at the University Paris Dauphine-PSL. Her research focuses on social practices associated with the possession, dispossession and non-possession of material items with a view to better understanding consumers’ attitudes to waste, wastage and material restraint. She has coordinated various research projects financed by ADEME, the French government’s environmental and energy agency. Her book Garder à tout prix. Décryptage d’une tendance très tendance (Vuibert, 2013) won the FNEGE Prize, while Du gaspillage à la sobriété. Avoir moins et vivre mieux ? (De Boeck, 2019) won the Pépite Prize awarded by Grand Prix jury. She lives in the Paris region.
Dominique Bourg
Leçons des limites planétaires
[The Lessons of Planetary Boundaries]
Based on the translation of the article by Katherine Richardson et al., ‘Earth beyond six of nine planetary boundaries’, Science Advances, 2023
This book sets out in clear terms the latest version, elaborated in 2023, of the framework of planetary boundaries – or ‘safe zone’ for human societies on the planet – and draws attention to the crossing of the sixth boundary (the alteration of freshwater cycles) and the imminent crossing of the seventh (ocean acidification). The two remaining boundaries simply cannot be crossed. The article by Katherine Richardson and her co-authors proposes a definitive version of this framework, which has since become the benchmark and deserves to reach as wide a public as possible. This book sets out to draw general lessons from these boundaries in terms of how human society needs to change, assuming we want to live on an Earth that is not scorching and offers more than a barely habitable environment for ourselves and our fellow species. It explores both the guiding principles of such a reorientation and potential ways in which it can be taken forward.
Dominique Bourg is a philosopher and honorary professor at the University of Lausanne. He edits Presses Universitaires de France’s ‘L’écologie en questions’ and ‘Classiques de l’écologie’ series. He has been a visiting professor at numerous universities around the world. His previous book was entitled Dévastation. La question du mal aujourd’hui, PUF, 2024. He lives in Switzerland.
> Système Terre
Arts…
Performing Arts. 22
Laurette Burgholzer and Lucie Doublet, L’Art du marionnettiste. 22
Fine arts. 23
Sophie Calle, Catalogue raisonné de l'inachevé 23
Jérémie Koering , Enquête sur Les Ménines 24
> les apparences. 24
Cyril Gerbron, Les Pierres et le Rêve 24
Photography. 25
> photo poche. 25
Claudia Andujar. 25
Laurette Burgholzer and Lucie Doublet
L’Art du marionnettiste
Pratiques de transmission
[The Art of the Puppeteer –Handing down the tradition]
For a long time considered to be a minor art, puppetry is now asserting itself as a discipline in its own right. Blending tradition and innovation, it deploys dexterity, drama and varied materials and technologies to claim its own unique place in the performing arts. Is a puppet a living object, a transgressive tool or a conduit for emotion? Laurette Burgholzer and Lucie Doublet not only explore the rich diversity of this art, from shadow puppetry and traditional representations to cyber puppets and contemporary spectacles, but also afford us an unprecedented glimpse into how puppeteers learn their craft, the authors themselves having observed at first hand how the masters of the art pass on their skills to the next generation. For bringing a puppet to life involves more than just mastering a technique – puppeteers must also develop a sense of drama and staging, control both objects and the spaces in between, and understand the grammar of gestures, all the while remaining at one remove from the action. They must also learn how to make their own puppets. It is a all-encompassing discipline that lies at the intersection of the performing and visual arts, and this book offers us an unparalleled insight into an art form that is constantly evolving.
A researcher in the domain of the performing and visual arts, Laurette Burgholzer lectures at universities and runs classes for arts organisations in Paris and Stuttgart. She has a PhD in drama studies and her research focuses on the handing on of skills and knowledge in the arts, puppet and mask theatre, and the channels of communication between the visual arts and set design.
Lucie Doublet has co-managed the Théâtre aux Mains Nues in Paris with Pierre Blaise since 2020. A doctor of philosophy, she taught for a decade at school and university level. She is also the author of literary and academic works, including Emmanuel Levinas et l’héritage de Karl Marx. Sublime matérialisme (Otrante, 2021) and L’Émergence d’une île (Les Cahiers de l’Égaré, 2016).
The hand puppet is a useful tool for teaching certain central principles, as it requires the puppeteer to ‘sculpt’ their body, movements and pauses.
In a course at the Théâtre aux Mains Nues, Ivan Bacciocchi and Natalie Stadelmann train students in the mime techniques developed by Étienne Decroux and their application to puppetry.
Visuel provisoire
Sophie Calle
Catalogue raisonné de l’inachevé
[Catalogue raisonné of the Unfinished]
On her exhibition A toi de faire, ma mignonne at the Musée Picasso in Paris, Sophie Calle unveiled her unfinished ideas, which are also her failures. In this eventful collection, which reveals all the submerged aspects of a body of work spanning several decades, we find the main motifs of her work, such as chance, chance encounters and, above all, her key idea of incompletion as a result, trial and failure as corollaries of artistic action.
Since the late 1970s, Sophie Calle has been the su.bject of nu.merou.s exhibitions arou.nd the world. Alternately described as a conceptual artist, photographer, videographer and even detective, she has develope.d an instantly recognizable practice, combining text and photograp.hy to nou.rish a narrative ail lier own. She has just been awarded the Praemium lmperiale 2025 prize in Japan.
14 × 22,5 cm / 304 pages
September 2025
> Collection
“Les Apparences”
Jérémie Koering
Enquête sur Les Ménines
Velázquez et le regard du roi
Préface de Tanguy Viel
[An Investigation into the Las Meninas – Velazquez and the king’s gaze, with a preface by Tanguy Viel]
Las Meninas occupies a place apart in our artistic landscape that is no doubt inspired by the mystery surrounding it. But can we put our fingers on the nature of that mystery? And shouldn’t that be mysteries in the plural, as on closer inspection there seem to be at least three? Firstly, there is an objective mystery arising from our unfamiliarity with the codes of 17th-century painting and the customs and expectations associated with the conception and execution of such a work. Then there is the subjective mystery, given that Velazquez appears to have been determined to implicate the viewer in the scene through the reciprocal interplay of gazes. And finally there is the self-referential mystery, which is the most striking of all: a canvas turned away from us that obstinately shrouds its subject in secrecy.
Adopting a distinctively personal approach, Jérémie Koering serves up a historical investigation that reveals how the painter transforms the representational act into a genuine pictorial intrigue.
Jérémie Koering is a lecturer in modern art history at the University of Fribourg, where his research focuses on Renaissance art and the epistemology of art history. He also edits the ‘Les Apparences’ collection and is the author of Les Iconophages (Actes Sud, 2021).
Cyril Gerbron
Les Pierres et le Rêve
Regard sur la peinture religieuse de la Renaissance italienne
Avant-propos de Jérémie Koering
[Stones and Dreams – Perspectives on Italian Renaissance religious painting, with a preface by Jérémie Koering]
This book functions as a guide to understanding the theological underpinnings and the poetic strategies of Italian Renaissance religious painting, which was still imbued with the mysteries of the incarnation, the resurrection and salvation. Cyril Gerbron’s starting point is always the visual form and impact of the works he insightfully analyses, meaning that this is very much an exercise in art history that seeks to identify the genesis, visual characteristics and formal inventions of the works in question.
Cyril Gerbron (1983-2019) has been an artist in residence at the Villa Médicis and a fellow at the Villa I Tatti. He is the author of a very well received book on the art of Fra Angelico (Fra Angelico, liturgie et mémoire, Brepols, 2016) and has co-edited several books on Renaissance art.
Claudia Andujar
Text by Thyago Nogueira
Born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in 1931, Claudia Andujar has lived in São Paulo since 1955. After a childhood spent in Transylvania with her father, she left for Switzerland with her mother to escape Nazi persecution in Eastern Europe. A first project focusing on the Karajá people of central Brazil led to her working as a photojournalist for various magazines, including Life, O Cruzeiro, Aperture and Realidade. She is now particularly associated with her photographs of the Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest, in whose culture she immersed herself. There is an advocacy dimension to her work that sets it apart from the purely documentary, and in her early days she experimented with a variety of techniques to capture her perceptions of the Yanomami shamanic experience. Reflecting her dual aesthetic and political approach, this ‘Photo Poche’ edition highlights Andujar’s major contributions to the art of photography as well as her crucial role in championing the rights of the Yanomami and defending the forests in which they live.
Thyago Nogueira runs the contemporary photography department at the Instituto Moreira Salles in Brazil and is also the editor in chief of the photography magazine Zum.
12,5 × 19 cm / 144 pages
August 2025 Poche no 184
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