Le cornet à dés

Max Jacob was a man of many faces: a Jew converted to Catholicism, a writer who wrote about his visions of the Saviour in all seriousness while simultaneously producing parodies with venomous wit, a mystic, and a clown. He lived in Paris amidst famous artists and writers, only to withdraw to a monastery afterwards. He occupied himself with cabbala and Bible explication, and wrote a collection of Breton songs under the name Morven de Gallique. He worked as an art critic under the pseudonym Léon David, while also working as a piano teacher and store clerk. He was subversive, theatrical, comical, unhappy and distinctly inimitable.

Organised chaos

His work is equally full of contrasts. Deep thoughts and witticisms, prose and poetry, mysticism and triviality all come together in it. Jacob's most frequently read, most important work is Le cornet à dés from 1917, a collection of 300 prose poems written by Jacob between 1903 and 1910. The pun-filled poems can be considered a form of organised chaos, systematic coincidence, similar to roulette or dice- which is why the title refers to the cup used to shake the dice. According to the author, the composition of this collection is as random as the results of a game of dice.

Colour wood-engravings

This reference to games is also programmatic: the poet juggling with language. Le cornet à dés cannot be placed within a single movement: there is a surrealist influence, it refers to cubism, and many saw similarities with the work of Apollinaire. The collection is certainly innovative and experimental. Max Jacob's preface 'Préface de l'édition de 1916', in which he introduced the concept 'situation', became almost as famous as the poems themselves.

In 1948- Max Jacob had died of pneumonia in concentration camp Drancy during World War II - Gallimard published a new edition of Le cornet à dés. Taking 130 gouaches by Jean Hugo as their point of departure, Jules Germain, Robert Armanelli and André Marliat produced colour wood-engravings. Jean Hugo, husband of Valentine Gross and great-grandson of Victor Hugo, had studied literature, but taught himself how to paint, and worked as an artist. His work, which is often described as 'naïve', brings to mind that of another autodidact: Henri Rousseau le Douanier. But there is clearly also a surrealistic influence. Hugo seems to have inherited a predilection towards romance and fairy tales from his famous ancestor. He also produced costumes and sets, and illustrated about one hundred books.