Oct 10, 2019 - Sale 2519

Sale 2519 - Lot 437

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(MUTEL, DIDIER.) Kafka, Franz. Metamorphosis. 3 volumes. Translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. 24 original copper engravings by Mutel. 250x283 mm; 9 3/4x11 1/4 inches, sheets. Oblong small folio, contents loose as issued in original numbered white wrappers; solid copper slipcase, a bit tarnished. (SA) [Paris] : Didier Mutel, 1996

Additional Details

copy number one of only sixty sets of the brilliant concept, design, and layout by Didier Mutel. His Metamorphosis typeface was created from fragmented letters as a metaphor for Kafka's famous tale about Gregor Samsa who is turned into a giant insect. In Volume 1, vertical marks are substituted for type of the words of the novel. In Volumes 1 and 2, several abstract images of Samsa are presented, but in Volume 3, only abstract marks are depicted. The words in Volume 2 are printed with combined vertical marks and Metamorphosis letters. According to Mutel, "It is the story of two worlds. Samsa's world, which cannot meet his family or outside world [as] there is no communication. When we can read the engravings, we cannot read the text and vice versa."