[Frans Masereel Passionate Journey Pdf Free
Saija Grzegorek
Passionate Journey, or My Book of Hours (French: Mon livre d'heures), is a wordless novel of 1919 by Flemish artist Frans Masereel. The story is told in 167 captionless prints, and is the longest and best-selling of the wordless novels Masereel made. It tells of the experiences of an early 20th-century everyman in a modern city.
Masereel's medium is the woodcut, and the images are in an emotional, allegorical style inspired by Expressionism. The book followed Masereel's first wordless novel, 25 Images of a Man's Passion (1918); both were published in Switzerland, where Masereel spent much of World War I. German publisher Kurt Wolff released an inexpensive "people's edition" of the book in Germany with an introduction by German novelist Thomas Mann, and the book went on to sell over 100,000 copies in Europe. Its success encouraged other publishers to print wordless novels, and the genre flourished in the interwar years.
Masereel followed the book with dozens of others, beginning with The Sun later in 1919. Masereel's work was lauded in the art world in the earlier half of the 20th century, but has since been neglected outside of Western comics circles, where Masereel's wordless novels are seen as anticipating the development of the graphic novel.
The story follows the life of a prototypical early 20th-century everyman after he enters a city. It is by turns comic and tragic: the man is rejected by a prostitute with whom he has fallen in love. He also takes trips to different locales around the world.[1] In the end, the man leaves the city for the woods, raises his arms in praise of nature, and dies. His spirit rises from him, stomps on the heart of his dead body, and waves to the reader as it sets off across the universe.[2]
German publisher Kurt Wolff sent Hans Mardersteig to Masereel to arrange German publication[12] in 1920.[9] It was printed from the original woodblocks[11] in an edition of 700 copies under the title Mein Stundenbuch: 165 Holzschnitte,[10] Wolff thereafter continued to publish German editions of Masereel's books,[12] later in inexpensive "people's editions" using electrotype reproduction. The 1926 edition had an introduction by German writer Thomas Mann:[11]
Look at these powerful black-and-white figures, their features etched in light and shadow. You will be captivated from beginning to end: from the first pictured showing the train plunging through the dense smoke and bearing the hero toward life, to the very last picture showing the skeleton-faced figure among the stars. Has not this passionate journey had an incomparably deeper and purer impact on you than you have ever felt before?[13][a]
The German edition was particularly popular, and went through several editions in the 1920s with sales surpassing 100,000 copies. Its success prompted other publishers and artists to produce wordless novels.[10]
The book won an English-speaking audience after its 1922 US publication under the title My Book of Hours.[14] printed from the original woodblocks[11] in an edition of 600 copies with a foreword by French writer Romain Rolland.[11] English-language editions took the title Passionate Journey[10] after publication in a popular edition in the US in 1948. An edition did not see print in England until Redstone Press published one in the 1980s.[14] It has also appeared in many other languages,[15] including Chinese popular editions in 1933 and 1957.[12] Some editions since 1928 have cut two pages from the book: the 24th, in which the protagonist has sex with a prostitute; and the 149th, in which the protagonist, giant-sized, urinates on the city.[16] Dover Publications restored the pages in a 1971 edition, and American editions since then have kept them.[17]
I believe that it contained the essence of what I wanted to say; I expressed my philosophy, and perhaps My Book of Hours with its 167 woodcuts contains everything I have created since, because I have developed a number of themes from it in my later work.[12][b]
Wordless novel scholar David Beron saw the work as a catalogue of human activity, and in this regard compared it to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Allen Ginsberg's Howl.[21] Austrian writer Stefan Zweig remarked, "If everything were to perish, all the books, monuments, photographs and memoirs, and only the woodcuts that [Masereel] has executed in ten years were spared, our whole present-day world could be reconstructed from them."[22] Critic Chris Lanier attributes the protagonist's appeal to readers to Masereel's avoiding a preaching tone in the work; "rather", Lanier states, "he gives us a story as a device through which we can examine ourselves".[23] This openness in the images invites individual interpretation, according to Beron.[2]
In contrast to the works of Masereel's imitators, the images do not form an unfolding sequence of actions but are rather like individual snapshots of events in the protagonist's life.[19] The book opens with a pair of literary quotations:[16]
... des plaisirs et des peines, des malices, facties, expriences et folies, de la paille et du foin, des figues et du raisin, des fruits verts, des fruits doux, des roses et des gratte-culs, des choses vues, et lues, et sues, et eues, vcues![c]
Impressed by the book, German publisher Kurt Wolff arranged for its German publication and continued to publish German editions of Masereel's books.[12] Wolf's edition of Passionate Journey went through multiple printings, and the book was popular throughout Europe, where it sold over 100,000 copies.[13] Soon other publishers also engaged in the publication of wordless novels,[12] though none matched the success of Masereel's,[6] which Beron has called "perhaps the most seminal work in the genre".[15]
While not as successful at first in the United States, American reviewers recognized Masereel as father of the wordless novel at least as early as the 1930s.[14] A revival in publishing interest in wordless novels in the 1970s saw Passionate Journey the most frequently reprinted.[24]
While the graphic narrative bears strong similarities to the comics that were proliferating in the early 20th century, Masereel's book emerged from a fine arts environment and was aimed at such an audience. Its influence was felt not in comics but in the worlds of literature, film, music, and advertising.[25] Masereel's work was widely recognized with awards and exhibitions in the early 20th century, but has since been mostly forgotten outside of Western comics circles,[26] where his wordless novels, and Passionate Journey in particular, are seen as precursors to the graphic novel.[27]
In my creative practice I explore personal loss and trauma through video, installation, AR, photography and performance to make parallels between these experiences. My multimedia works revolve around the theme of bringing back to life, while the afterlife is still looming near. The overarching theme is how we as humans can connect via shared experiences and make meaning of these experiences. Metaphors, such as red thread, are used as symbols for loss and the longing for connection. Often times these works are created or installed in the natural environment, making parallels between the human body/systems and these unseen systems/structures within nature. I see the power in nature being able to bear witness to the remnants of these life experiences.
Lifeline is an artist book created from paper from an EEG machine that was discovered in an abandoned hospital in Florence, Italy. This book is filled with quotes from the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) and photographs of my explorations. The book, which reflects on moments of my own life, consists of chapters that I am slowly letting go. A red thread creates a direct sculptural connection to the viewer, linking them to the personal contents of Lifeline.
John Audubon, in honor of whose name this book is published, owned and sold enslaved people, a fact that until recently had been erased from popular consciousness. The reemergence of this history ignited debates concerning the fate of the legendary Audubon Society. This artwork brings the viewer face to face with the laborious and unnatural effort that the erasure of historical racism requires, asking them to consider it as an act of intentional misdirection rather than mere obliteration.
In an era wherein the history of slavery is being erased from school curricula, and the fact of ongoing climate catastrophe is actively ignored, this artwork serves as a reminder of the perils of willful ignorance and the erosion of collective wisdom.
Kunstadt's works often invoke a metaphysical quality. Her works reference antique books, music manuscripts, maps and artifacts - deconstructing paper and text and using it in metaphorical and playful ways. Through the manipulation of the materials (geography books from the 1860's), the carefully charted topographies, geographies, boundaries and coordinates are physically sliced, sewn, woven and layered - ultimately transformed and inviting new explorations.
Boston born, with a small town New England childhood, Kunstadt received a BFA, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT. and continued with postgraduate studies at the Akademie der Bildenen Knste, Munich, Germany. Nine years ago she re-entered a familiar landscape as in her youth, moving to the Hudson Valley, having lived for 35 years in NYC.
Public Collections: George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, ME; The Book Arts Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; The Permanent Collection, CBA, NY, NY; Baylor Book Arts
In the Wanderlust Series, maps from geography books published in 1860's are cut and recombined. The carefully charted topographies, geographies, boundaries and coordinates are physically sliced, sewn, woven and layered - ultimately transformed and inviting new explorations. Layering the paper intuitively, responding to the existing cartographic renderings, allows for new territories to form. Combining the maps with antique wooden shoe forms and map pins, suggests a journey charted, imagined, or remembered. A unique perspective of mapping the world is depicted utilizing the antique materials.
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