[SANGUINETTI, Gianfranco] CENSOR. Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia. Milan: Scotti Camuzi, 1975. 150 p.; 23.5 x 14.8 cm.; tan cover with text in red and black. Copy no. 137 of 520. Complete of its errata card. We locate a single OCLC copy at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, part of the Gianfranco Sanguinetti papers.

True first edition of what is perhaps Gianfranco Sanguinetti’s most critical work.

Gianfranco Sanguinetti joined the Situationist International after May 68, and soon turned into a key contributor to the organization (and of its last two members). He was one of the founding members of the Italian section of the S.I. in January 1969, alongside Claudio Pavan and Paolo Salvadori. Sanguinetti became very close to Debord (the two of them exchanged over 600 letters, many of which remain unpublished to this day), with whom he co-authored La veritable scission dans l’Internationale Situationniste in 1972. He also helped Debord with his film, La Société du Spectacle, also in 1972.

In July 1975, writing under the pseudonym of Censor, Sanguinetti authors the Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia (in English: Truthful Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy). Posing as an anonymous, high-ranking member of the Italian intelligentsia, Sanguinetti makes the argument that the Christian democrats should welcome Communists in a coalition government in order to maintain the capitalist order. Written in the style of a political treatise, the book openly draws from the likes of Machiavelli and Clausewitz.

The book was printed in 520 numbered copies, then mailed to a small set of influential politicians, company executives, union leaders, and journalists. The book was then printed by Mursia in October 1975, garnering many positive reviews in the press and selling thousands of copies. The Rapporto would eventually be translated into French (Paris: Champ Libre, 1976) and English (Pougkeepsie, N.Y. : Anti-torpor league, 1979 — partial translation; Flatland: Fort Bragg, 1997; and online here)

For more details on the context behind the book, see here.

SANGUINETTI, Gianfranco. Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor. Milan: n.p., 1976. 32 p.; 23.5 x 15.3 cm.; tan cover with text in black. Copy no. 400 of 520. Compete with its red wrapper band. We locate two OCLC copies, at Bologna and Roma.

It was not until December 1975 that Sanguinetti revealed that the book was a fake, a hoax. In Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor: Censor did not exist; Rapporto was Sanguinetti’s attempt to point out the cynicism of the Italian bourgeoisie. This caused a large scandal, contrasting with the many positive reviews of the Rapporto in the Italian press.

DEBORD, Guy. Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] (signed “Guy”) dated 20/01/1991. n.p. [Paris], 20 January 1991. 1 p.; 21 x 30 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] dated 20 January 1991. This letter, however, was mailed to Francois Escaig.

This letter is a “correction” of an exercise proposed by Guy Debord to Renaud Burel in his letter dated 2 January 1991. He had then written the following: “In the periodical that you gave me the other evening [Mordicus], I identified a paragraph in which several contradictions can be discovered. Since I have said that your logic (with respect to a completely unworthy inheritor) appears a little weak to me, I now propose to you an exercise, which you can do together with your friend: what are the manifestly false points in these six short lines and to which intentions could they correspond?”

While we could not locate Burel’s (and perhaps Escaig’s?) response, we have identified the six lines that Debord was referring to. They are part of an article on the Red Brigades published in the first issue of Mordicus (“Affreux, sales et puissants”, pp. 4-5) in December 1990. It translates as follows: “Many have wondered about the possibility that groups like the R[ed] B[rigades] could have been manipulated. However, inifinitely more powerful than all conspiracies and conspirators, the “manipulation” by society, the economy, and the media trumps the will of the individual. Only an attack against these real powers can threaten those rule the world and render their actions meaningless” (p.5)

The letter by Debord is a line-by-line rebuttal of these six lines. An English translation of that letter can be found here: http://www.notbored.org/debord-20January1991.html. It is reproduced below for the reader’s benefit:

Several inconsistencies

No one was ever interrogated about the manipulations of the R[ed] B[rigades]. Three or four individuals established the fact with certainty and the others swallowed it all. In those six lines,one must especially see that “individual will” designates both the provocateur and individual critique.

What does “the attack against the real powers” mean? Did not the RB want [to make] such an attack? Perhaps they did “disquiet the masters of the world,” but to arrive at “rendering their maneuvers derisory” it would be necessary to also vanquish them (the intentions, even the true ones, cannot be taken as identical with the results). Is not critique a real attack, too? It is at least a real protection from attack. Does one want to pretend that “individual” critique is necessarily unreal and in sum harmful to real struggles, which must go to the fore with confidence? Police manipulation is only a particular possible case of general manipulation, quite certainly. And the manipulation of the workers by their union leaders was only another particular case in its time.

An “attack against the real powers” (meaning Mordicus?) is necessarily made from an assemblage of individual wills. But must they only think about the great (powerful) forces of society, forces that “escape” them? But would there not also be particular forces whose action could escape them even better?

One cannot know if the intention of this specialist of “the attack against the real forces” is here to justify the gullibility of the past or to cover adventurous errors to come.

Guy

[KING MOB / Clark, T.J. et al.]. Manifesto of Rationalism: Special Souvenir Revolutionary Festival Brochure. n.p. [London]: n.p., n.d. [1968]. n.p. [8 p.]; ill.; 21 x 27.5 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Several “articles” refer to student protests in 1968 at the Essex University, Liverpool University, and the London School of Economics. A mixture of text, cut-ups, and détourned comic strips (OCLC)

“According to an interview with T.J. Clark (Power to the People, 2013) “In 1968 Essex University hosted a dreadful “revolutionary festival” with Godard and co. in attendance. A group of naysayers produced something called the Manifesto of Rationalism in hopes of spoiling the party, and I remember that my contribution was a strip cartoon beginning with a quote from Lewis Namier: ‘Liberty is the fruit of slow growth in a stable society.'” Clark goes on to express sincere hope that the item won’t be recovered for future scholars to examine.” (Arthur Fournier Rare Books)

We locate a single copy on OCLC at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

[PINOT-GALLIZIO, Giuseppe] Pinot-Gallizio: Industrielle Malerei. Munich: Van de Loo, 1959. n.p. [4 p.]; ill.; 15 x 21 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Catalog published on the occasion of Pinot-Gallizio’s exhibition, held at the Galerie Van de Loo in Munich between 14 April and 8 May 1959. This was Gallizio’s third exhibition of industrial painting, and the first one outside Italy (the Drouin exhibition in Paris would follow shortly thereafter). Contents include: a photograph of Pinot-Gallizio in his workshop in Alba (different from the one in the catalog of the exhibition held in Torino in 1958), a translation into German of excerpts of Michele Bernstein’s Elogio di Pinot Gallizio, and a translation into German of Pinot-Gallizio’s biography as found in the Torino catalog.
For more details, see Debord’s letter to Pinot-Gallizio dated February 1958 (Correspondance Vol.1, pp. 193-194)

BERNSTEIN, Michele. Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio. Prima Mostra di Pittura Industriale. Torino: Notizie – Associazione Arti Figurative, [May] 1958. 4 p.; ill.; 21.5 x 15.5 cm.; cream wrappers with text in black.

Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio (In Praise of Pinot-Gallizio) is Michele Bernstein’s homage to the Italian painter on the occasion of his first exhibition of industrial painting, which opened on May 31, 1958 in Torino. This exhibition predates the ones held at Galerie Montenapoleone in July 1958, at the Galerie Van de Loo in Munich, in April-May 1959, and at the Galerie Drouin in May 1959. Bernstein’s text is followed by a short biography of Pinot-Gallizio, where we learn that the current exhibition showcases: “12 meters of oil painting on canvas, 14 meters of thermostatic resins on canvas, 70 meters on canvas produced in the lExperimental Laboratory of Alba, with the collaboration of Giorgio Melanotte” (translation is mine). A photograph of Pinot-Gallizio in his workshop is also included. The rear wrapper features an advert for the aperitif “Carpano”.

Debord writes to Asger Jorn about Pinot-Gallizio’s first exhibition in a letter dated 27 April 1958 (Correspondance Vol.1, p.89-90). A few months later, in another letter dated 16 June 1958, Debord sends Gallizio his “heartfelt congratulations for a well-deserved and expected success” (Correspondance Vol. 1, pp.99)

Excerpts from Bernstein’s text appeared in Internationale Situationniste 2 (Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1958: pp.27-28) while the full text was reproduced in Pinot-Gallizio (Paris: Institut scandinave de Vandalisme Comparé, 1960). An English language translation can be found here: https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/inpraise.html

Raspaud & Voyer 106.

We locate a single copy on OCLC.

[INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONNISTE] [GUTT, Tom et al.]. l’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive. n.p. [Brussels]: n.p., 31 March 1963. Leaflet: 1 p. (two-sided); 21.5 x 25 cm.; black ink on white stock. Envelope: 15.5 x 12.5 cm.; blue ink and black stamps on light blue stock.

Written by Belgian Surrealist Tom Gutt (1941-2002), this leaflet was issued as a fake supplement to Internationale Situationniste 8 and is signed by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem on the behalf of the Situationist International’s Central Committee. 500 copies were printed. L’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive is Gutt’s response to the Situationist leaflet Pas de dialogue avec les suspects! Pas de dialogue avec les cons! , a violent attack against the Belgian Surrealists that was published on 27 February 1963. The conflict would also be discussed in Internationale Situationniste 9 in August 1964 (“Under the pretext of a completely imaginary anti-fascism, a few fragments of surrealism’s Stalinist tendency attempted to join the situationists in Anvers. Their inevitable ejection was reported by a tract issued in Dutch and French on 27 February 1963: No Dialogue with Suspects! No Dialogue with Morons!“)

Gutt’s leaflet parodies Situationist rhetoric and announces the (fake) exclusion of Attila Kotanyi. Concidentally, Kotanyi would be excluded from the S.I. later that year — in December 1963 specifically

To make the story believable, Gutt mailed the leaflet from Paris (instead of Brussels) – specifically from the rue Cujas post office, not far from the Sorbonne and from the Situationist International’s PO BOX location. He also managed to duplicate the Internationale Situationniste stamp, which appears on the front of the mailing envelope. This particular copy was mailed to Belgian writer Louis Scutenaire.

We locate OCLC copies at Yale and the Getty Museum.

BAJ, Enrico (Ed.). Bollettino d’informazioni [sic] del Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste, n. 1 : Immagine e Forma. n.p. [Milan]: Editoriale Periodici Italiani (EPI), 30 October 1954. 12 p.; 33 x 23 cm.; beige wrappers with text in black.

GALLIZIO, Giuseppe; SIMONDO, P[iero]; VERRONE, E[lena]; JORN, A[sger]. Bollettino d’informazioni [sic] del Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste, n. 2 : Eristica. Alba: Laboratorio sperimentale per una Bauhaus Immaginista, July 1956. 18 p.; ill.; 33 x 23.5 cm.; ill. wrappers with original original lithograph by Asger Jorn.

Complete series of this scarce, short-lived and important periodical, as it spurred the long friendship between Asger Jorn and Guy Debord. In fact, Debord would reproduce excerpts from “Immagine e Forma” in issue #15 of Potlatch (22 December 1954)

The first issue – which is also the first publication of the Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste – consists of a single text by Asger Jorn (“Immagine e Forma”). The translation into Italian is the work of Sergio Dangelo, and was done based on Jorn’s original manuscript. A French version would be published in 1958 in Pour la Forme. The text is a sharp criticism of Max Bill and the College of Design in Ulm.

The second (and last) issue consists of several articles. “Forma e struttura” (Form and structure) by Asger Jorn (which would be reprinted in French in Pour la Forme); “Per una teoria generale delle arti figurative” (For a general theory of figurative art) by Piero Simondo; and “Funzioni architettoniche, di destinazioni democratiche” (” Architectural functions, of democratic destinations”) by Elena Verrone. It also includes photographs from Incontro internazionale d’arte in Albisola in 1954. The inside front and rear wrappers reproduce the text “Percha la Bauhaus e cosi importante?”, which was originally issued as a leaflet and presents the 27 key theses of the Imaginist Bauhaus.

Scheppe & Ohrt 91, 93. We locate 6 copies on OCLC.

[INTERNATIONALE LETTRISTE] Avant la guerre: 66 métagraphies influentielles. Paris: Galerie du Passage, 11 June 1954. 1 p.; 21 x 27 cm.; black ink on cream stock.

Announcement leaflet (no catalogue was issued) for the first lettrist exhibition, held at the Galerie du Passage in Paris on June 1954. Gil Wolman was the organizer, and this would be the first time his collages would be shown. Other stated contributors include Andre-Frank Conord, Mohamed Dahou, Guy-Ernest Debord, Jacques Fillon, Gilles Ivain (i.e., Ivan Chtcheglov, who contributed a map of Paris with islands, archipelagoes, and peninsulas), and Patrick Straram.

Gonzalvez 100. Oeuvres 126-130. Scheppe & Ohrt 136

Not on OCLC.

VERNAY, Herve. Nous avons la douleur de vous faire part de la perte de GUY DEBORD mort à l’Internationale Situationniste. Strasbourg, [December 1966]. 14 x 10 cm. postcard housed in a 14.5 x 11 cm. envelope.

Fake mortuary card that reads “It is with profound sadness that we inform you of the passing of Guy Debord, who died at the Internationale Situationniste” (translation is mine).

This card is the work of André Vernay, who once lived in the same apartment as Bruno Vayr-Piova and Tony Verlaan . According to André Bertrand and André Schneider, “in December 1966, Hervé Vernay, who was upset to have been kept on the sidelines of the Strasbourg scandal, sought to discredit his former comrades to Guy Debord” (Le scandale de Strasbourg mis à nu par ses celibataires même , p.139). In a letter to Guy Debord, Vernay had already expressed what he saw as contradictions between the pamphlet De la misère en milieu étudiant (released in November 1966) and Situationist ideas. Debord would write back on 26 December 1966, expressing his “complete solidarity” with the Strasbourg students (and their incendiary brochure) and refusing an in-person meeting with Vernay (see Correspondance vol.3, p.185).

This fake mortuary card would be reproduced in Internationale Situationniste 11, where it is described as an “example of anti-SI propaganda, distributed anonymously at the General Assembly of the French National Student Union in January [1967]” (p.28)

Our copy comes in an original envelope that was mailed to HEATWAVE (a magazine launched by future Situationist member Charles Radcliffe in July 1966) and postmarked 24 December 1966.

In looking at this card, one cannot help but recall Guy Debord’s own fake mortuary notice, which he wrote with Hervé Falcou on the occasion of their success at the French baccalaureate exam (July 9, 1951). See Guy Debord, Oeuvres (p.41)

We locate no copy on OCLC or in the trade.

JORN, Asger; ARNAUD, Noël. La Langue verte et la cuite, étude gastrophonique sur la marmythologie musiculinaire. Paris: Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 30 octobre 1968. 343 p.; ill.; 28 x 22.5 cm; ill. Dust jacket with minute tears. Signed by Jorn.

Published as the third volume of the Bibliotheque d’Alexandrie (Library of Alexandria), La Langue verte et la cuite is the result of a collaboration between Noel Arnaud from the College de Pataphysique and visual artist Asger Jorn. The work is spectacular in many respects. First, its sheer physicality: the book is almost 5 cm thick and weighs over 2 kilograms. Next, its rich production: La Langue verte includes 315 color illustrations and a luxuriously printed dust jacket. Last but not least, its many ambitions – including the articulation of a new (half-serious) art / science (“la cuisine des langues”) and a parody of structuralism, which was then all the rage in France. In many ways, La langue verte can be read as a situationist detournement of Claude Levi Strauss’ Le Cru et le Cuit (The Raw and the Cooked, 1964), which investigated the role of cooking in the transition from nature to culture.

For additional insights about La Langue verte et la cuite and its rich meaning, see: HARRIS, STEVEN. “How Language Looks: On Asger Jorn and Noël Arnaud’s La Langue Verte.” October 141 (2012): 111–32. https://tinyurl.com/thufnvzd