An exhibition dedicated to livre d'artiste as a special art phenomenon, will be for the first time held in the Hermitage Museum.

      The exposition is based on books from the collection of Mark Ivanovich Bashmakov, an academician of the Russian Education Academy. 

      Several works from the Hermitage collection are meant to add up to a versatile picture of the evolution of “the artist’s book”.  The emphasis is on the early stages of the history of livre d'artiste – from 1900 to the beginning of World War II - and, in particular, on the role that outstanding publishers (Ambroise Vollard, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and Albert Skira) played in the development of this phenomenon.

      The exhibition will take place from September 28 to December 15 in the 12 Columned Hall of the New Hermitage (N 244), St. Petersburg.