Matriochka
By: Fanette Mellier
Publisher: Editions du livre, France, 2024
Format: Hardback, miniature format (6.5x8.5 cm)
Remember your magnifying glass!
Fanette Mellier will be a well-known name for many lovers of silent books. She is the artist behind many beautiful and innovative silent books, like Panorama, Au Soleil and Herbarium. She is also a well-known designer, doing work for high-end brands like Hermès. In her work with books, Mellier focuses on exploring the possibilities in the printing prosess, and her books often have metallic prints as part of the artwork.
Matriochka is a tiny, tiny book, the smallest in our collection. It´s so small that it nearly got lost - we had ordered a whole bunch of books, and this little one was tucked into a corner of the carton, so it almost ended up in the recycling bin. Luckily, we found it! Matriochka is a silent book that is also an artists book. There is no obvious "story" here, but pictures of Matriochka dolls, 16 in total, that keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller, just like the wooden versions of these dolls do.
You will need a magnifying glass to be able to see the details on the smallest dolls
There are three editions of this book, with a blue, red or purple cover. There is one doll on each spread, printed on a silvery grey background that makes the beautiful colors pop. The left page is black, apart from the first spread that has a contrast color. The quality of the binding, paper and printing is very high.
Mellier invites us to explore this family of dolls, all with beautiful colors and intricate details. You will need a magnifying glass in order to enjoy all the interesting details, which of course makes the book all the more fun to read. Mellier´s signature metallic foil printing adorns every other doll in the book. (This detail has inspired so many great conversations with children: - Why? Maybe some are rich and some are poor? Maybe sometime you look more like your grandmother than your mother?).
Matriochka is one of those books that makes you really stop and see, spend time on each picture and just enjoy the visual world. A tiny little gem!
