The Doll

German artist Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) was one of the most subversive artists associated with Surrealism, famous—notorious, even—for his erotic engravings, objects and photographs. The first edition of The Doll comprised a series of Bellmer’s photographs “illustrated” with prose poems by Paul Éluard; Bellmer’s hand-colored photographs subsequently acquired an iconic status as perhaps the purest exemplification of the Surrealist ideal of “convulsive beauty.” Later editions of the book were expanded to incorporate a body of theoretical, poetic and speculative texts that together comprise one of the most important expositions of Surrealist cultural theory. Bellmer weaves a remarkably disparate set of concepts and intuitions—from fields as diverse as mathematics, morphology, optics and psychology—into a theory of eroticism that provides a totally unexpected rationale for his uncompromising art. His ideas are, in the words of poet Joë Bousquet, a “scandal to reason.” This English edition follows Bellmer’s original, the texts having been translated for the first time—by Malcolm Green, who also provides an introduction—from the final German version.