| dc.description.abstract | From 1978 Sophie Calle created the series of Les Autobiographies which was published in a small-format book, entitled Des histories vraies (True Stories) by Actes Sud in 1994. The book comprised of 26 short stories. At the same time Des histories vraies were displayed in two separate panels on the wall in Sollertis Gallery in Toulouse. Through the passage of time, it has been re-edited, and has evolved to different designs for the special exhibitions or on the occasions of receiving awards. My thesis focuses on the publication of Des histories vraies and addresses the following questions: what is its context? Could it be the work of art by itself? Deriving from notebooks, Les Autobiographies and Des histories vraies always present one image facing one text on double-sided pages (recto-verso) independently, and the stories are not arranged in the chronological order. As a result, the double-sided pages become the typical characteristic of the work, but this book form does not resemble illustrated books. The image and the text cannot be separated from each other, so my thesis aims to analyze and interpret the context and meanings of this photo-text work.
In the first chapter, I explore the nature of contemporary artist’s books. From the 1960s to the 1970s, Conceptual and Fluxus artists searched for a proper method to document the process of the Happenings and the performance work. At the same time, photography demanded to be considered as art too, and this led to the development of art in the form of document. Some artists started to choose the book as a carrier of works, and adopted the form of popular publications and the ready-made of industrial reproductions at affordable prices to reach different readers. In the second chapter, I apply narratology to analyze the reception of the photo-text which implicates popular magazines or the television news (tele-reality). Especially through the first-person narration, the text helps to bring about a witness’s subjective experience, self-representation, and memory. The first-person narration compromises “truth” and “stories” which could contradict each other. However there is always a gap in the time during the post production of the photos and the use of self-mocking words make readers confused and underline the unstable relation in the photo-text. As Des histories vraies was re-edited and added stories, the author’s journey of life was unfolded. In the last chapter I discuss the evolution of the work as a site-specific exhibition in the Sigmund Freud Museum, Appointment with Freud. This project presented double visions and polyphonic narrations through the integration of different people’s life stories.
In conclusion, Des histories vraies sets an example of the dual nature in photo-text which characterizes Calle’s works and opens the reader’s double visions: one image facing one text in double-sided pages may induce the reader’s personal thinking which reverses the visual convention. Words question the reality constituted by the indexicality in photographs. Due to the duality in Des histories vraies I interpret the photo-text narration as the disposition of camera lucida which the artist sees both the scene and drawing surface simultaneously and which the artist needs comparing its dual imaging between the real and the representation of the object. In other words, Des histories vraies in the double-sided pages can provide us the dual muse which realizes the imagination of the photo-text stories.
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