Jean Boghossian (1949). - Lot 34

Lot 34
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Estimation :
5000 - 7000 EUR
Jean Boghossian (1949). - Lot 34
Jean Boghossian (1949). Book saved. 2022. Signed and dated. Dimensions : 13 x 27 x 17 cm. Burned book from the "Saved Books" series. Offered directly to the owner by the artist. "By devouring his books with his flame, Jean Boghossian reverses the eschatological ingestion of the little book by John the Evangelist: in the monstration of the burnt book, John exalts the perpetual victory of the spirit over the forces of matter and evil. In his preface to the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade edition of the "Apocalypse" text, Jean Grosjean concludes: "Death is the set of forces that momentarily struggle against life". That's exactly how Jean Boghossian's books make me feel. He doesn't put the book to death. He delivers it to suffering through fire. The charred book is still there, but frozen, intact, statuesque as if by the ashes of Vesuvius. It contains sealed knowledge. The word, in John's burnt books, lives on in us who look at them with the eyes of civilization, who question these Phoenixes from beyond the flames, cenotaphs of the works they contained. For John's martyred books bear witness, as do all martyrs. The first Christians proclaimed: "sanguis martyrum est semens ecclesiae". The ashes of John's martyrs sow our eyes with an absolute faith in the survival of the forces of the spirit."
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