LIVRE D’ARTISTE AS AN ISOVERBAL TEXT IN THE CULTURE OF SYMBOLISM

The article examines the unique genre of the livre d'artiste which combines visual and verbal representations. The binary model of this book form was determined by its synthetic intermedial genre which reflects the isoverbal experience of modernism. The livre d'artiste in the original sense appeared thanks to the prominent French collector and marchand d'art Ambroise Vollard. His idea was to promote an artist's work with the help of a book containing original prints. An inimitable individual style, experimental print techniques and innovative design — all of these factors helped make every book unique. As a rule, its pages were not stitched together, with a marked focus on the inlaid fonts, headpieces and frontispieces, which brought the artist back to the main principles of the book art of the Baroque. An important place in the history of the livre d'artiste as a genre belongs to the controversial Les Fleurs du mal — a volume of poetry by Charles Baudelaire. Since they were first made public by the author, audelaire's poems fascinated both book illustrators and painters, including such Symbolists as Émile Bernard, Odilon Redon, Carlos Schwabe, Félicien Rops, François-Auguste-René Rodin and Armand Rassenfosse