CASTILLEJO, Jose Luis (and SCANREIGH) The Book of N’s

(No place / Nimes, France): No printing details, no date / 2014-2015. First edition. Octavo. Unpaginated. This volume comprises A Book of N’s by Castillejo, the volume hand-titled by the author in black ink. We can find no evidence of the volume being commercially published and no copy is located on WorldCat (A Book of i’s was published in 1969 and A Book of J’s was published in 1969). The volume comprises page after page of printed N’s, each page is different from the last. This volume has then been decorated by Scranreigh (Jean-Marc Petit) a Moroccan born, outsider artist, with 197 drawings variously in ink, crayon and felt pen, on the facing page. Each artwork signed and dated by Scanreigh. The drawings predominately portray enigmatic figurative allusions. Evanescent shapes and worried ghostly figures that haunt a patched up, dislocated world. The distraught universe where Scanreigh takes us seems haunted by masks, grimacing faces, in pain as if prey to some jubilation; smiles and rictus merge in vein of a passage towards the unknown, an intriguing and yet endearing work. This is a very good copy in blue cloth with wraparound original artwork by Scanreigh. A unique and wonderful volume.