ERNST, Max (1891-1976). Une semaine de bonté ou les sept éléments capitaux. Paris: Jeanne Bucher, 1934.

From an edition of 828 copies, one of 800 on Navarre paper, of which this is #396. Beginning in 1929, Ernst produced three major collage-novels, each crafted with unsettling and eerie illustrations cut from Victorian novels, penny dreadfuls, encyclopedias, wood engravings, natural science journals, and other texts. Une semaine de bonté (A Week of Kindness) was the third and best-known in the series, created during the summer of 1933 while the artist was staying at Vigoleno in northern Italy. The other two in the series were La Femme 100 Têtes (The Hundred Headless Woman; 1929) and Rêve d’une Petite Fille Qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil; 1930).

Five volumes, quarto (272 x 206mm). Illustrated with 182 line blocks after collages and drawings (a little toning at edges, limitation leaf in vol. 1 detached). Original printed wrappers (spines sunned, some wear at extremities); publisher's slipcase with pictorial label (cracked at seams, back panel lacking).