Arp collaborated with Tzara on several books including Cinéma calendrier du coeur abstrait, which they worked on via correspondence when they were living in different cities, respectively Berlin and Paris. Printed on thick handmade paper in an edition of 150 copies, the volume adheres more closely to the fine-arts tradition of the livre d’artiste (artist’s book) than did many earlier Dada publications, which were often scruffily printed on cheap paper. Tzara collaged elements of language into unexpected associative strings, while Arp used the organic forms of his woodcuts to evoke the unceasing transformations of nature.
Gallery label from Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, December 23, 2012–April 15, 2013.