obscure and surreal: mary reynolds

Man Ray

"Photograph of Mary Reynolds"

1930

I love when I "discover"

a missing link to the puzzles of the past.

Bookbinder and surrealist muse Mary Reynolds is one of 

those missing links for me.

I snagged this book a few years ago 

and then promptly "lost" it in the book jungle

that is my apartment.

Well, 

once lost 

and now rediscovered,

both the book 

and Mary!

Man Ray

"Photograph of Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp"

n.d.

Man Ray

"Photograph of Mary Reynolds"

c. 1930s

Constantin Brancusi,

Marcel Duchamp and Mary Reynolds in

Villefranche, France.

1929

Mary Reynolds

"The Knowledge of God or the Creation of Man"

by Jean Pierre Brisset

Bufo Toad skin cover

n.d.

Mary Reynolds

"A Harsh Winter"

by Raymond Queneau

Goatskin with broken thermometer

1939

Mary Reynolds

"The Free Hands"

Drawings by Man Ray, poems by Paul Eluard

Goatskin and kid gloves

1937

Mary Reynolds

"Ubu Cocu Restored to its Integrity 

as it was Presented 

by the Puppets 

of the Theater Des Phyances"

by Alfred Jarry

Goatskin and calf skin

1944

Mary Reynolds

"Hebdomeros"

By Giorgio de Chirico

Goatskin and leather

1929

Mary Reynolds

"The Red and the White [Lucien Leuwen]"

by Stendhal

Goatskin and vellum

1929

Mary Reynolds and Marcel Duchamp

"King Ubu: Play in Five Acts"

by Alfred Jarry

Goatskin and various leathers

1921

Mary Reynolds

"Mental Hospital"

by Jean Cocteau

Goatskin and vellum

1926

Mary Reynolds

"Saint Glinglin"

Goatskin with broken pottery cup handle

1948

All images from:

'Mary Reynolds and the Spirit of Surrealism"

The Art Institute of Chicago

Museum Studies

Volume 22, No.2

1996