Suite Vénitienne by Sophie Calle—
redesigned and reissued
Suite Vénitienne is renowned artist Sophie Calle’s first book, long out-of-print and highly coveted, now redesigned by Siglio in collaboration with Calle to be the definitive English-language edition.
Originally published in 1983, Suite Vénitienne is the crucible of her inimitable and provocative fusion of investigatory methods, fictional constructs, the plundering of real life and the artful composition of self.
“For months I followed strangers on the street. For the pleasure of following them, not because they particularly interested me … At the end of January 1980, on the streets of Paris, I followed a man whom I lost sight of a few minutes later in the crowd. That very evening, quite by chance, he was introduced to me at an opening. During the course of our conversation, he told me he was planning an imminent trip to Venice. I decided to follow him.” —from Suite Vénitienne by Sophie Calle
As Calle wanders through Venice, intentionally losing herself in the labyrinthine streets, the city becomes a repository of her desires. She notates her search for and surveillance of Henri B., while also carefully observing her own emotions—reminding herself that while it feels like she’s in love, she is not; that his elusivity may be more appealing than actually knowing him; and that the gap between her own thoughts and his—which she cannot know—is wide.
Her investigation is both methodical (calling every hotel, visiting the police station) and arbitrary (following another stranger hoping someone might lead her to him). She sometimes tells the truth (when she enlists Venetian friends of her friends who lend a phone or make inquiries on her behalf). And sometimes she does not, inventing stories to entice strangers to come to her aid.
Once she does find and follow him, “What we see,” as Lawrence Rinder writes in Sophie Calle and the Practice of Doubt, “is not the object in closer view but the measure of the distance in between.” Henri B., as he wanders and photographs Venice often in the company of another woman, is still an enigma whom Calle observes from the semi-obscurity of the shadows where she hides in disguise. Once he confronts her—after she has ventured too close—Henri B. tells her that it’s her unmasked eyes that have given her away.
Siglio’s beautiful, new iteration of Suite Vénitienne is printed on Japanese paper with a die-cut hard cover and gilded edges, in an intimate size that allows readers to devour this compelling and crucial work.
Publication date: April 30 / hardback / 96 pages / 34.95 USD
Also by Sophie Calle: The Address Book
Having found a lost address book on the street in Paris, Sophie Calle copied the pages before returning it anonymously to its owner. She then began contacting the people—in essence, following him through the map of his family, friends, lovers, and acquaintances—in order to build a mosaic portrait of the owner Pierre D. in absentia.
Sophie Calle’s written accounts of these encounters—juxtaposed with her photographs—originally appeared as serial in the French newspaper Libération over the course of one month in 1983. The Address Book, a key and controversial work in her oeuvre, was been published for the first time in its entirety in English as a beautiful trade edition artist’s book, designed in collaboration with the artist.
Part conceptual art, part character study, part confession, part essay, Sophie Calle’s The Address Book is, above all, a prism through which desire and the elusory, the private and the public, knowledge and the unknown are refracted in luminous and provocative ways.
About Siglio Press
Siglio is an independent press dedicated to publishing uncommon books and editions that live at the intersection of art & literature: inimitable, visionary works by renowned as well as little known artists and writers that defy categories and thoroughly engage a reader’s intellect and imagination.