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The Subversion of Images: Notes Illustrated with Nineteen Photographs by the Author
“Belgian Surrealism’s greatest intellectual.”—Francis Ponge
First edited and published by Marcel Marien in 1968 in a limited edition of 230 copies, half a year after Paul Nougé’s death, The Subversion of Images is a miniature classic in both the photobook and surrealist canons. It collects Nougé’s notes and photographs from 1929–1930 to form a guidebook to the surrealist image. Nougé here outlines his conception of the object and outlines the Surrealist approach to it, while also offering an accompaniment to the visual work of his colleague, René Magritte, whose paintings he sometimes titled. How might a tangle of string elicit terror? How might the suppression of an object move one to sentimentality? What is the effect of a pair of gloves on a loaf of sliced bread?
Nougé’s accompanying photographs explore these notions, and feature a number of his Belgian Surrealist colleagues. This translation is presented as a facsimile of the original edition, with an afterword by Xavier Canonne, director of the Musée de la Photographie.
Paul Nougé (1895–1967), a biochemist by trade, was a leading light of Belgian Surrealism and its primary theorist, as well as a decisive influence on such future Lettrists and Situationists as Guy Debord and Gil J Wolman, who would take inspiration from his conception of plagiarism for what would come to be termed “détournement.” Decidedly unambitious when it came to literary celebrity, Nougé’s guidance nevertheless steered the Brussels Surrealist group toward a more rational approach to visual and verbal language that discarded the Parisian Surrealists’ proclivity for irrationality and occultism.
First edited and published by Marcel Marien in 1968 in a limited edition of 230 copies, half a year after Paul Nougé’s death, The Subversion of Images is a miniature classic in both the photobook and surrealist canons. It collects Nougé’s notes and photographs from 1929–1930 to form a guidebook to the surrealist image. Nougé here outlines his conception of the object and outlines the Surrealist approach to it, while also offering an accompaniment to the visual work of his colleague, René Magritte, whose paintings he sometimes titled. How might a tangle of string elicit terror? How might the suppression of an object move one to sentimentality? What is the effect of a pair of gloves on a loaf of sliced bread?
Nougé’s accompanying photographs explore these notions, and feature a number of his Belgian Surrealist colleagues. This translation is presented as a facsimile of the original edition, with an afterword by Xavier Canonne, director of the Musée de la Photographie.
Paul Nougé (1895–1967), a biochemist by trade, was a leading light of Belgian Surrealism and its primary theorist, as well as a decisive influence on such future Lettrists and Situationists as Guy Debord and Gil J Wolman, who would take inspiration from his conception of plagiarism for what would come to be termed “détournement.” Decidedly unambitious when it came to literary celebrity, Nougé’s guidance nevertheless steered the Brussels Surrealist group toward a more rational approach to visual and verbal language that discarded the Parisian Surrealists’ proclivity for irrationality and occultism.
58 pages, Paperback
Published January 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 7, 2020
Such a wonderful consequence that I was reading Dennis Cooper's blog on the medium of the Photonovel today (https://denniscooperblog.com/timothyt..., and bingo, I'm reading and enjoying Paul Nougé's "The Subversion of Images." The book is text and photographs by Nougé and is a very classic Surrealist approach to the image and literature. The motif is a picture, and then the text that describes the photograph in almost like a police report, but with poetic touches. I don't know Nougé's writings that well except for this book and "Ideas Have No Smell: Three Belgian Surrealist Booklets," which also focuses on Louis Scutenaire and Paul Coinet. Nougé's poetry is very playful, but straight forward as well. I'm hoping to read more of his work as it gets translated into English. Another beautiful Wakefield Books production!
June 2, 2020
This is a short book (40-odd pages, mostly of photographs), but its rich suggestiveness opens up enormous vistas and new worlds in looking, seeing things that had remained invisible, representing, transforming, in giving objects 'the greatest possible autonomy in a familiar setting', as Xavier Canonne puts it in his useful 'Afterword'. One of Nougé's photographs shows a woman trimming her eyelashes with a pair of scissors: as Canonne explains, the French word - déciller - also means opening the eyes wider.
Nougé explains it in his usual direct way: 'It is a matter of giving people and objects a use and function different from their usual ones'.
Nougé explains it in his usual direct way: 'It is a matter of giving people and objects a use and function different from their usual ones'.
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August 6, 2023“With Nouge, objects always seem to have the last word, like those traced by a hand minus its pen, like those glasses the drinkers don’t clutch as they clink them, or that invisible coat rack for hanging garments.”
“The subversive power of an isolated object is directly related to the intimacy of its past relationships with our body, with our mind, with ourselves. Thus, a hand is more likely to startle us than a scrap of linen.”
“a man eats his hand, a packet of string, a lock of hair”
“a woman sews a candle onto a slice of bread”
“The subversive power of an isolated object is directly related to the intimacy of its past relationships with our body, with our mind, with ourselves. Thus, a hand is more likely to startle us than a scrap of linen.”
“a man eats his hand, a packet of string, a lock of hair”
“a woman sews a candle onto a slice of bread”
September 19, 2021
A slim. little volume of photographs and notes from 1929-30 by one of the Belgian Surrealists. A fascinating little volume. I only wish there was more to it and that the photographs had been better preserved.
March 23, 2024
Never intended for publication, it reads like what probably was--an artist's assignment notebook, specifically for surrealist photography. The photographs were made 30 years before the first publication, at a time when photography was beginning to find its way as a distinct art form, and the plainness of the technique shows Nougé had embraced the camera aesthetic. For those interested in surrealism, the editor stresses the close relationship between Magritte and Nougé, even stating Nougé titled some of Magritte's paintings (but not saying which.)
January 20, 2024
read this sitting in a bookstore. can confirm i was immediately entranced. the premise of subverting the obvious is exactly what i try to achieve in my work— it’s safe to say i left this book with a lot of ideas despite its short length. “it is a matter of giving people and objects a use and function different from their usual ones”
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews