2026.08.22 － 2026.10.11
1111 project: Adonides by Joan MIRÓ and Jacques PRÉVERT
Books emerged as a means of transmitting knowledge: transforming spoken language into written records, and translating ineffable feelings into visual images. When we leaf through an exhibition catalogue, we understand that the images of artworks reproduced on its pages are portable surrogates. They may show us what a work looks like, but they cannot recreate the experience of standing before the original—until artists decide to make the work itself in the form of a book.
In 1955, the 62-year-old Spanish painter Joan MIRÓ (1893–1983) and the 55-year-old French poet Jacques PRÉVERT (1900–1977) decided to create a book together. When Prévert pointed out that Miró’s first draft was not good enough, the two artists did not fall out or turn against each other. Instead, they slowed down and allowed their ideas to resonate with one another, spending years developing a remarkable work in which poetry and image became seamlessly intertwined. Twenty years later, in 1975, the artists’ livre d’artiste, Adonides, was finally published in a limited edition by the Parisian art publisher Maeght Éditeur. Prévert’s warm, handwritten lettering was integrated into handmade paper through lithography, while Miró brought his signature vivid colors to the pages through intaglio printing combined with embossing, allowing his energetic visual language to dance freely between the lines of text.
The title Adonides derives from Adonis, the beautiful young man in Greek mythology who symbolises youth and the cycle of death and rebirth in nature. While hunting, Adonis was fatally attacked by a wild boar, and his blood was transformed into the red Adonis flower. From then on, the flower would disappear each autumn and return each spring, repeating the cycle year after year. Prévert’s poetry does not celebrate an imagined eternity, but instead fixes its gaze on the fleetingness of being alive in the present moment. Miró, meanwhile, distilled the myriad forms of the world into symbols that dance freely across the page. Together, they left behind on paper their own interpretation of nature’s cycles. Their freedom, openness and childlike sense of wonder still bring a spontaneous smile to our faces half a century later, even in an age of information fatigue. What a beautiful and precious thing that is.
One room, one work, one encounter.
While stars are poetry, poetry is too, made of stars.
｜Exhibition Information｜
1111 project —— Adonides
Date｜2026.08.22（Sat） – 2026.10.11（Sun）
Location｜Gallery de sol
Address｜3F, Mandarin Gallery, No.166, Dunhua N. Rd., Songshan Dist., Taipei
Hours｜Tue–Sat 1PM – 9PM（Sundays by appointment only）
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