Petit manuel de minéralogie prophétique

Description

"In January 2010, I was lucky enough to find an intact, lichen-covered slab of criss-crossed black sandstone waiting for me far to the south-east of the nearest oasis. It was vertical, set between two huge boulders and protected from the sandy winds by a bush of euphorbia. It measured around thirty by forty centimetres.
The silent scene depicted a standing man, his left foot resting on a boulder and his right arm outstretched. On his outstretched hand lay a crested bird, beak open, facing the man's gaze. In the background, a white sun cast its rays like undulating roots, interlacing his shoulders. The scarred cheek showed the number three followed by one. An aloe-like bush in the lower right completed the picture.
It was clean, beautiful, enigmatic, totemic.
A few days later, all that remained of the recovered plaque was the distraught bird, its legs bound with pyrite wire: the gold of fools."

Petit manuel de minéralogie prophétique is the twenty-second volume in the Pacific series published by art&fiction. This collection is supported by members of the art&fiction association, the City of Lausanne and the Loterie romande.
The edition was prepared by Gilles Gardet, with layout by Stéphane Fretz. The images were prepared for printing by Roger Emmenegger, Datatype SA, Lausanne. The book was printed and bound by La Buona Stampa, Pregassona. Published with the support of the Fondation Hans Wilsdorf, Geneva. Limited edition of 401 copies, justified as follows: 390 copies numbered from 001 to 390. 11 copies signed and numbered in Roman numerals from I/XI to XI/XI, bound by Sofi Eicher in Lausanne, decorated with a Neolithic flint collected by Marcel Miracle on the edge of the Grand Erg Oriental.