Encyclopaedia Acephalica (Atlas Arkhive)
For those who have acquired the taste for surrealist intellectual feasts, this encyclopedia is right on target: it is no less than a cornucopia of thoughts, images, and illustrations reflecting the avant-garde "anti-tradition." Three sets of texts are translated and assembled here: the first two, Critical Dictionary and Related Texts, first appeared in issues of Documents from 1929 and 1930 and primarily were edited by George Bataille; the third, Encyclopaedia Da Costa, appeared anonymously in 1947, though Alastair Brotchie's well-documented historical introduction reveals the identity of its editors (Robert Lebel and Isabelle Waldberg). Contributors to these texts were members of the London and Paris surrealist groups as well as those of the secret society Acephale: artists, writers, sociologists, and ethnologists providing their own interpretation of the meaning of daily life, art, and philosophy. This title is a very useful compendium of surrealist thinking and provides a good introduction to the many-faceted aspects of Surrealism as a movement.Danielle Mihram, Univ. of Southern California, University ParkCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.