BRULY BOUABRÉ (Frédéric). - Lot 108

BRULY BOUABRÉ (Frédéric). The Traveler’s Arms. Paris: Private Call, 1995. — In-8, 223 x 164: (2 blank folios), 12 pp., (5 folios, the last 2 blank), printed cover. Loose-leaf, pasted-down cover, publisher’s slipcase. First edition consisting of previously unpublished pages excerpted from the “Book of Divine Laws Revealed to the Persecuted by the Revelator Cheick-Nadro, son of Dalo-Gbeuly; officially known as Frédéric Bruly Bouabré,” selected by Franck André Jamme and André Magnin. Frédéric Bruly Bouabré (1923–2014) was an Ivorian poet and illustrator, and the inventor of the Bété script. His work, both graphic and poetic, blends writing, colored-pencil drawings, and a spiritual dimension, exploring universal symbols (banana peels, clouds, scarifications). Although recognized late in life, he was introduced to the world in 1989 during the “Magiciens de la Terre” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, and his work was subsequently exhibited in major museums and biennials (Tate Modern, Documenta XI, the Venice, Sydney, and Dakar Biennales). His universalist art aims to connect peoples through the quest for meaning and the creation of symbolic systems. This edition, printed in a limited run of only 49 copies on vellum paper from the Larroque mills, is numbered and signed by Bruly Bouabré. Each copy includes a unique original sketch by the artist, pasted as a frontispiece. This copy is numbered 45, and the sketch depicts 8 circles—6 of which are in color—at the center of a rectangular frame colored green, around which appears the following phrase: “The Solar Vision in the Order of the Persecuted, dated March 11, 1948, a Thursday.” The copy is in perfect condition.