BOCHOŘÁKOVÁ-DITTRICHOVÁ, Helena. Indiani Jindy a Dnes. Kniha drevortyu.

By the First Woman Graphic Novelist

BOCHORAKOVA-DITTRICHOVA, Helena. Indiani Jindy a Dnes. Kniha drevortyu. [Indians Then and Now. A Book of Woodcuts.] (Hranice-Brno: Josefem Hladkým, 1934) [57] leaves. (272 x 195 mm.) First Edition. One of of 125 copies (of which 100 were for sale), this copy unnumbered. Publisher's tan cloth boards, upper cover with gilt stamp, gilt titling on spine. Without the slipcase. With 51 woodcut illustrations, seven of which are hand colored (by a previous owner?).  Boards with some foxing, pencil marks, and the cloth slightly sunned; a couple of leaves with very faint thumb soiling, but the contents otherwise pristine.

An arresting (mostly) wordless graphic novel by a pioneering printmaker, and one of the most difficult works to obtain from the artist's oeuvre.

Consisting of 51 woodcut images and a short introductory text by the author, "Indians Then and Now" was inspired by the artist’s journey to the United States in 1931. It presents a brief history of the Odawa and Pueblo peoples from before the arrival of Europeans through the early 20th century. The images commence with idyllic scenes of Native American life, followed by first contact with European settlers. The compositions become increasingly conflict driven, including Pontiac's armed struggles against the British in 1763, and clashes with settlers during the great western expansion. The final images, by contrast, depict the resurgence of traditional arts and culture in Southwestern communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This work is distinct among the wordless novels of Bochořáková-Dittrichová, an artist who favored portrayals of religious subjects, contemporary places and events, and her own life experiences, such as her first work, "Z Mého D tství" ("From My Childhood"). Poignant and expressive, "Indians Then and Now" is a particularly powerful work in the artist's oeuvre--as well as one of the most difficult to obtain.

Often credited with being the first woman graphic novelist, Helena Bochořáková-Dittrichová (1894-1980) was an exceptionally talented printmaker and a pioneer of the wordless novel. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, she was educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague and studied printmaking in Paris where she became especially interested in the work of the Belgian artist Frans Masereel. Bochořáková-Dittrichová published her first wordless novel in 1929, and went on to produce more than a dozen more over the next 40 years. Her work has enjoyed increased visibility and interest over the last decade, and her limited edition publications have become quite sought after. The present work, printed in an edition of 125, is among the most difficult to find, with no copies listed on Rare Book Hub. It is also scarce institutionally, with OCLC locating just 10 copies worldwide.

N.B.: Although some records indicate that there are 52 woodcuts, we compared our copy to the digitized copy at the Moravska Gallerie in Brno, which shows 51 woodcuts, all of which are present here. (The cataloguing mistake likely stems from the collation following the preliminary text, which comes to 52 leaves total--51 leaves of illustrations and one colophon leaf.) (1043)