Mourir pour la patrie (Die for the Fatherland)

This soft pink cover and florid calligraphy masks a book of unsettling images. In the preface, Jean explains that the illustrations were created as semi-automatic drawings, a Surrealist technique that allows the unconscious mind to control the creative process. The resulting images appropriate Catholic imagery, such as pierced hands resembling stigmata and monstrous figures tempting a weary soldier, that seem to respond to the oppressive dogma of fascism taking hold of Europe at the time. In stark contrast to the hypnotic, visually pleasant cover, the preface’s language is harsh and the interior images are filled with mutilated and distorted figures. Underlying the horror is an urgent call to action from Jean (and arguably Surrealism as whole) to reject the constraints instilled by the French elite. France during this time was not only subject to outside pressures of an impending war, but also internal strikes and protests from factory workers in the throes of a global economic depression, motivating artists to detach from the mystical and instead prioritize the concrete reality of their situation. This book is one of the 39 copies released in 1936 and includes a poetic inscription from Jean to fellow artist Marcel Duchamp.