Bataille's Eye. Signed prints by Deborah Cullen, Sophie Sanders, Rudzani Nemasetoni, Edward Fausty, Shigeku Kumabe, Wei Jane Chir, Andrew Davis, Esteban Chavez, Marjorie Van Dyke, Kelly Driscoll, Lance Lumar et al. Histoire de l'oeil History of the

Los Angeles: The Institute of Cultural Inquiry, 1997. A fascinating and wonderfully-illustrated monograph--with contributions by various scholars--devoted to Georges Bataille's magisterial erotic surrealist novel, Histoire de l'Oeil (first published pseudonymously in 1928). This is ONE OF ONLY 100 COPIES WITH THE UNEXPURGATED COVER, which was "cleaned up" for the trade edition. All of Masson's lithographs executed for the first edition of Histoire de l'Oeil are reproduced, as are the etchings Bellmer made for the second. There are many other related illustrations as well. This is ONE OF FEWER THAN 30 NUMBERED COPIES OF THE DELUXE EDITION, WITH A PORTFOLIO OF 13 ORIGINAL SIGNED AND NUMBERED PRINTS (etchings, aquatints, lithographs, woodcuts, photoengravings, mixed media) by Deborah Cullen, Sophie Sanders & Rudzani Nemasetoni, Edward Fausty, Shigeku Kumabe, Wei Jane Chir, Andrew Davis, Esteban Chavez, Marjorie Van Dyke, Kelly Driscoll, Lance Lumar, Richard Nelson, Peter Mayer, and Scherer & Ouporo. Square 4to. The book is in the original wraps, in the original folding paper envelope. It is housed with the prints in the original luxurious cloth case, with a mounted glass eye (!)--complete with movable eyelid and eyelash--staring out from the cover. FINE AND BRIGHT WITH NO DEFECTS. 75 copies of this deluxe edition were announced, but in the end fewer than 30 were actually assembled. A stylish and impressive tribute to one of the intellectual milestones of the 20th century, the Histoire de l'Oeil, widely considered not only the best surrealist work of fiction but also the most important erotic novel written since 1900.