Death, Desire, and the Doll: The Life and Art of Hans Bellmer

Death, Desire, and the Doll is the only complete illustrated biography of Hans Bellmer. Featuring many of Bellmer’s surreal/erotic drawings, paintings and sculptures as well as his classic series of Doll photographs, Death, Deisre, and the Doll also tells the complete story of Bellmer’s remarkable life, from Nazi Germany to the inner circle of the Paris Surrealists and beyond. It is a fascinating story which encompasses the history of both surrealist and erotic art and literature, and which firmly positions Hans Bellmer at the forefront of the 20th Century avant-garde. De Sade, Bataille, Jean de Berg and Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues are just some of the authors whose work Bellmer enhanced with his incredibly perverse and complex illustrations. With his legendary Doll, Bellmer established one of the most disturbing creations in modern art, while his text The Anatomy of the Image remains crucial to understanding the eciprocity between body and imagination.