A la Memoire de Romulus. Nouvelle.

Liège.: Yellow Now., 1974. Original wrappers.. (14.1 x 11.2 cm).. pp. (56). With 22 monochrome offset illustrations. For over 40 years, Anne and Patrick Poirier have visited, carried out excavations, collected and inventoried sites and relics from ancient civilizations. This interest in travel and the discovery of world heritage is deeply rooted in their artistic practice. They belong to the first generation of artists who have travelled the world in an attempt to understand the organization of ancient cities, and more particularly, their disappearance. Eschewing the conventional roles of sculptor or painter, they have assumed the mantles of archaeologist and architect, and their work is not so much formal research, as it is a journey through time and human memory. ‘A la Mémoire de Romulus’ is the Poirier’s first artist’s book, published to accompany an exhibition at the Yellow Now gallery in Liège in 1974. Under the auspices of Guy Jungblut, Yellow Now, as well as being a gallery space, also became a publishing house, specialising in limited editions by French artists such as Messager, Paul-Armand Gette, Le Gac, as well as the Poiriers. On each occasion the “focus was on the relationships between text and photography, the book performing its role as an intermedia space” (Johan Pas). With ‘A la Mémoire de Romulus’ the text is accompanied by the repeated use of the same over-exposed photograph, seemingly of the ancient Roman forum, with the image decreasing slowly in size throughout the book. Published in an edition of 77 numbered copies. (Johan Pas - Artists’ Publications: The Belgian Contribution, p.136).