This serigraph by French Conceptual artist Daniel Buren is from a publication entitled Cahiers d’un Retour au Pays Natal, whose text is a poem by Martinique writer Aimé Césaire. The hors texte illustrations by the artist reflect his hallmark style of brightly colored vertical strips while the four separate serigraphs, of which this is one, alternate between figures with hard-edged lines and soft fur-like circular shapes. The content of the book, which inspired Buren, is similarly a mix but of poetry and prose, and it explores the cultural identity of black Africans in a colonial setting. The book was first published in 1939.

Buren designed the die-cut pages in some cases to reveal selected words or phrases from the text and, in others, to change his own striped artwork as the pages are turned.

The book is signed by the author and is blindly embossed with the artist’s initials (using a stamp designed by the artist); each serigraph is embossed with the artist’s initials. The book and the other serigraphs from this work can be seen in the collections section of this gallery’s listing under the title “Buren Pays Natal”.