Anatomy of the Devil – Short Stories by Walerian Borowczyk
Anatomy of the Devil: Short Stories by Walerian Borowczyk / 158-page paperback, 6.75 x 7.75 inches, color illustrations, published by Rotland Books in an edition of 500 / cover design by the Brothers Quay / includes a special limited edition postcard designed by the Quay Brothers
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The Paris-based, Polish-born polymath Walerian Borowczyk (1923 – 2006) was an animator, writer and director of cinema, set designer, graphic designer, painter, lithographer, sculptor, and author. Above all, Borowczyk was a provocateur, expanding formal boundaries and challenging expectations. In this collection of his short fiction, Borowczyk’s preoccupations with historical narrative, the resonance of inanimate objects, paroxysmal collisions between the beautiful and the cruel, all filigreed with cosmic absurdity, are set down in compact, elegant tales, translated here from the original French text. Throughout, as in all of his work, Borowczyk constructs a viewing apparatus to frame textured investigations into the flickering, animating forces of creation and annihilation.
Originally published in France in 1992 as L’anatomie du diable, this printing presents an English language translation of the complete text by Borowczyk’s assistant Michael Levy + a selection of 35 color illustrations that had been created for a 1992 private edition of L’anatomie du diable using a process Borowczyk called pulverographie or dustography (which involved the manipulation of images using color photocopying) + a comprehensive interview with Michael Levy concerning his working relationship with Borowczyk + covers designed by animators/filmmakers the Brothers Quay, whose work has been influenced by the early films of Borowczyk.
