The Library of Babel: The Room of Planets

1997

The Library of Babel: The Room of Planets, 1997. Erik Desmazières (French, born Morocco, 1948-), Printed by René Tazé and François Baudequin at the Atelier René Tazé, Paris. Etching and aquatint from the First Suite of ten prints on blue-toned laid paper; platemark: 30.5 x 49.1 cm (12 x 19 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Carole W. and Charles B. Rosenblatt 2018.56.2 Erik Desmazières’ etchings and aquatints represent libraries, city views, cabinets of wonder, and other spaces rich with meaning, history, and content, both real and imagined. Through virtuoso draftsmanship and his consummate command of the technical aspects of etching, Desmazières renders his architectural spaces and cityscapes with hardened reality, simultaneously imbuing them with an uncanny sense of the fantastic and the surreal.