This work was created from a drawing by Max Ernst for the frontispiece of “Mr. Knife, Miss Fork,” the first chapter of Babylone (1927; English translation published in 1931), a book by the Surrealist poet René Crevel. The publication includes nineteen photograms, said to have been produced by Ernst with the assistance of Man Ray. Created through a process similar to Man Ray’s rayographs, these images combine frottage and line drawing. Drawings made on thin translucent paper were used as negatives to produce reversed images on photosensitive paper. The volume was further distinguished by a cloth binding based on Ernst’s design, enhanced with hand-coloring and gold stamping.
The book represents an important collaboration that transcended the boundaries between art and literature within Surrealism. Crevel’s poetry and novels frequently explore themes of sensuality, sexual identity, self-destruction, and death. Openly homosexual at a time of considerable social pressure, he ultimately took his own life in 1935. In this work, the knife and fork—often interpreted as symbols of masculinity and femininity—together with the numerous wooden spheres confined within a net, evoke a sense of tension and eroticism. By placing familiar objects within an unexpected context, the work calls forth the unconscious and hidden desires central to Surrealist thought.