Invoking Apollinaire: The artist’s book as a grimoire

The artist’s book Apollinaire, published by Henri Matisse and André Rouveyre in 1952, commemorates the life of Guillaume Apollinaire and is a declaration of the enduring bonds of friendship that the three men shared. The confluence of facts and fiction in this book contributes to the creation of a mythical and ultimately unknowable Apollinaire. Invoking the specter of the poet, the work fits into the tradition of hermetic books, and in particular that of grimoires.