This Is Not a Pipe

Foucault, Michel (Text by); René Magritte (Illustrations and Letters by); James Harkness (Translated and Edited by). This Is Not a Pipe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982. Second printing.

Octavo (8 1/4 x 5 1/4″). X, [2], 66, [2]pp (Text), [22]pp (Plates). Original illustrated dust-jacket over salmon cloth, with black lettering to spine.

“What does it mean to write “This is not a pipe” across a bluntly literal painting of a pipe? René Magritte’s famous canvas provides the starting point for a delightful homage by French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault. Much better known for his incisive and mordant explorations of power and social exclusion, Foucault here assumes a more playful stance. By exploring the nuances and ambiguities of Magritte’s visual critique of language, he finds the painter less removed than previously thought from the pioneers of modern abstraction.

Foucault’s brief but extraordinarily rich essay offers a startling, highly provocative view of a painter whose influence and popularity continue to grow unchecked. This book also throws a new, piquantly dancing light on Foucault himself.” (From the Publishers).

Dust-jacket, binding and interior in overall very good condition. vg. Hardcover. (41841) $45