Exploring various ways in which a range of twentieth-century European artists and writers challenged the boundary between visual and linguistic expression in the content, production and physical form of books, these essays challenge the roles played by visual and bodily sensation in recent histories of literary modernism.

Investigating the complex history of visual art's engagement with literature, this collection demonstrates that the art of the book is a fully interdisciplinary and distinctly modern form. The essays in the collection develop new critical approaches to the analysis of twentieth-century bookworks and explore ways in which European writers and painters challenged the boundary between visual and linguistic expression in the content, production, and physical form of books. The Art Book Tradition in Twentieth-Century Europe offers a detailed examination of word-image relations in forms ranging from the livre d'artiste to personal diaries and almanacs. It analyzes innovative attempts to challenge familiar hierarchies between texts and images, to fuse different expressive media, and to reconceptualize traditional notions of ekphrasis. Giving consideration to the material qualities of books, the works discussed in this collection also test and celebrate the act of reading, while locating it in the context of other sensory experiences. Essays examine works by Dufy, Matisse, Beckett, Kandinsky, Braque, and Ponge, among other European artists and writers active during the twentieth century.

'This book presents fresh interpretations of the unique relationship between word and text, author and artist, and the intersection of art and writing. It offers new and often intriguing insights into collaborations between artists and writers as well sheds light on lesser-known artists of this genre, thus opening up opportunities for additional new scholarship.' ARLIS 'This volume makes a valuable contribution to intermedia studies and succeeds in the editor's aim of showing how the art book tradition exploits "the dynamic relations between contrasting media in order to test and expand their own expressive repertoire".' French Studies 'Le volume ... offre un échantillon varié et stimulant de contributionsàce champ en plein épanouissement. L'intérêt et les mérites de ce volume collectif, dont grâce au travail très soignée de la directrice l'ensemble vaut plus que la somme des articles qui le composent, sont multiples. [ ... ] Enfin, le livre dirigé par Kathryn Brown prend soin également de sa valeur d'usage: une excellente bibliographie, un index utile, un choix intelligent d'images parfois surprenantes font de cette publication un outil de travail on ne peut plus utile.' Image & Narrative 'New outcomes in the traditional ekphrastic "war" between word and image are envisaged in these innovative and scholarly essays, most timely in view of current inter-disciplinary trends in research and teaching programmes.' SHARP News