Respirez Bien Fort

Diane Guyot de Saint Michel

Drawing plays a central role in Diane Guyot's work, speading across a great variety media and formats from sheet of paper to t-shirt, posters and animation. It infuses the different dimensions of the artist's manifold practice imbued with an empathic and unvarnished humour, fed by her numerous collaborations and by the observation of the different social, cultural and institutional contexts in which she works. Built around a selection of recent drawings, the book Respirez bien fort [Take A Deep Breath] cuts across the categories of monograph and artist's book. Pertaining to artist's book insofar as it aims to adapt a set of pre-existing drawings in the book's dimension, and in doing so to explore their narrative potential, taking advantage of their heterogeneity to elaborate an unpublished visual narrative; it fulfills the role of a monograph in that, by way of the themes it intertwines and the treatment of drawing as a privileged tool and medium in Guyot's practice, the book gives an insight into the diversity of her production and provides the reader with a certain understanding of the basics of her work, in a form that manifests a certain way of looking at the world, of taking notes, collecting words, arranging signs and recurring themes, developing a langage and ways of doing and telling.

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This book is co-produced by the contemporary art centre La Halle des bouchers, Vienne and with the support of the Centre national des arts plastiques, the Conseil régional Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Département des Bouches-du-Rhône and the City of Marseille.

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96 pages - 4 colours offset printing - 240 x 320 mm - 500 ex.
Authors : Diane Guyot de Saint Michel, Camille Videcoq
Text in French and English
Graphic Design : Côme de Bouchony
ISBN : 979-10-90298-11-8 - 2019