Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France
La prose du Transsibérien et de la Petite Jehanne de France (Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France) is a collaborative artists' book by Blaise Cendrars and Sonia Delaunay. The book features a poem by Cendrars about the poet's journey through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Express in 1905, during the first Russian Revolution, together with Jeanne, a French prostituted girl. The text interlaced with an almost-abstract pochoir print by Delaunay. The work, published in 1913, is considered a milestone in the evolution of artist's books as well as modernist poetry and abstract art.
This long-format illustration can be considered a "simultaneous book." It is a two-meter long book, pleated in the manner of an accordion, exhibiting the artist's technique of manipulating color for maximum expression. Patches of non-uniformly shaped color and text printed in different colors (not the expected black) and typefaces, guide the reader around the text and reflect the mood and content of Cendrars' poem. The planned print run of 150 copies was purposefully meant to reach 300 feet high (if all copies are connected end-to-end) - the height of the Eiffel Tower.
The publisher of a 2008 reprint of the book has called it "one of the most beautiful books ever created". Cendrars himself referred to the work as ‘a sad poem printed on sunlight’.
