Itinéraires Fantômes
by Alexandra Grant with Hélène Cixous
Published by X Artists’ Books as part of X Topics
www.xartistsbooks.com/books/itineraires-fantomes-oracle-deck
Itinéraires Fantômes, an oracle deck created by Alexandra Grant with Hélène Cixous in celebration of Hélène’s work, is now available for pre-sale through X Artists’ Books. The Itinéraires Fantômes deck is organized in conjunction with the exhibition Itinéraires Fantômes, curated by Marion Vasseur Raluy and Ana Iwataki, which runs from June 21, 2024 to January 19, 2025 at the CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain de Bordeaux.
The Itinéraires Fantômes deck consists of 72 cards in six categories: animots, creatures, and entities that include Those from Below, Those from Above, Those Who Fly/Steal, who travel via Portals, manipulate Messages and Symbols, and have Superpowers. The cards are accompanied by a booklet in English and French.
The images on the Itinéraires Fantômes cards come from family, friends, and artists who have been inspired by and inspired Hélène’s writing and were designed by Unyimeabasi Udoh. Artists include: Adel Abdessemed, Pierre Alechinsky, Sara Barker, Gabrielle Berger, Louise Bourgeois, Leonardo Bravo, Maria Bussmann, Sarah Cain, Lewis Carroll, Bertrand Charneau, Maria Chevska, Michael Kennedy Costa, Laura Darbutaitė, Tacita Dean, Edgar Fabián Frías, Jeffrey Gibson, Francisco Goya, Alexandra Grant, Mathew Hale, Simon Hantaï, Johanna Hedva, Roni Horn, Victor Hugo, Hanna Hur, Franz Kafka, YeRin Kim, Lynn Marie Kirby, Jean-Jacques Lemêtre, Colin Lemoine, Laure Prouvost, Elsa Prudent, Addy Rabinovitch, Keanu Reeves, Cindy Rehm, Saranya Siegel-Berger, Shinique Smith, Nancy Spero, Luc Tuymans, Unyimeabasi Udoh, Roger Viollet, and Anna Winger.
Hélène Cixous is a multi-hyphenate French writer, philosopher and playwright born in Oran, Algeria whose writing, since 1969’s Dedans (Inside), has pushed against literary genres. As an academic, Cixous co-founded Paris University VIII in 1969 and founded the first Women’s Studies program in Europe. She has collaborated extensively with visual artists as well as contemplated their work in her writing. Cixous gave an early manuscript of her 2022 work Mdeilmm to Grant as the basis or inspiration for the Itinéraires Fantômes deck and exhibition.
Alexandra Grant a Los Angeles– and Berlin–based visual artist whose work explores issues around communication across languages, literary traditions, and cultures. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries globally and she is represented by Miles McEnery Gallery in New York and carlier | gebauer in Berlin and Madrid. Grant’s first collaboration with Hélène Cixous, in 2013 was a two-city exhibition and participatory drawing project called Forêt Intérieure/Interior Forest at Mains d’Oeuvres in Saint Ouen, France and 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica, CA.
Unyimeabasi Udoh is an artist based in London. Their work across media—print, drawing, sculpture, and installation—centres on legibility, the void, and the construction of meaning. Udoh works to reveal—oftentimes through strategic withholding—the absurdity of the world we live in and the structures that support it.Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Flood at Piccalilli, London (2024); Withdrawing at Kip, London (2024); A Gain at Night Café, London (2023); Ave at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (2023); and Wayfinding at LVL3, Chicago (2022). Udoh holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from Columbia University. They were the 2022–23 Starr Fellow at the Royal Academy of Arts.
X Projects, established in 2021, explores the creation of artworks, editions, and ideas outside the confines of traditional book publishing.
For orders visit www.xartistsbooks.com and in Europe through Les Presses du Réel, click here.
