ARP, Jean (or Hans) & TAEUBER-ARP, Sophie.

poèmes sans prénoms, jean arp / 3 dessins, sophie taeuber-arp.

Three full-page engraved illus. by Taeuber-Arp. [28] pp. 8vo, orig. printed thick paper wrappers & orig. pictorial dust-jacket (a trifle worn), staple-bound. Grasse, France: Self-published, 1941.

A rare poetic artist’s book jointly created by the Arps, from a numbered edition of 150 (ours is no. 72); according to WorldCat there are only five copies in North America. The couple had escaped Paris before it fell to the Nazis and headed to Vichy France in the South. One of their stops was with Peggy Guggenheim in Veyrier. They settled in Grasse in 1941 and established an artist colony with colleagues Sonia Delaunay and Alberto Magnelli. Taeuber-Arp’s short time in Grasse was very formative and she experimented with overlaid undulating lines that created appealing geometric compositions, which are featured here in the book, paired with her husband’s poetry, and on the dust-jacket. Within a year, Arp (1886-1966) and Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943) decamped for Zürich following Grasse’s takeover by the Germans.

In near fine condition; edgewear to the dust-jacket. From the edition of 150, the first ten copies were accompanied by a drawing.

|| W. Summerfield, “The Modern Artists Who Made the Most of Isolation,” (April 2020) Apollo Magazine website (accessed 10 September 2026).

We recommend visiting the Sophie Taeuber-Arp Research Project website’s illustrated database to see the artist’s work from this period.

Price: $1,250.00

Item ID: 11558