Deschamps, Francois. Life in a Book by Francois Deschamps.

Visual Studies Workshop, 1986. First edition of 500 copies. [Fictional illustrated autobiography in black-and-white photographs. From the back cover: "F. Deschamps, the author/photographer of this fascinating book is a magician and former dictator of Malaria, an island in the Caribbean Antilles. Although he was a fairly popular dictator, he quite suddenly decided to retire in 1975. He now resides with his canary in a small house in upstate New York."] Like new in wraps.  Very uncommon in this condition. Summary:

Life in a Book (1988) by François Deschamps is an experimental artist's book published by Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) Press. It functions as a surreal, humorous, and self-reflexive narrative exploring the medium of the book itself as a container for human experience, memory, and everyday absurdity.

Key Details & Highlights

• Publisher & Format: Published in 1988 by Visual Studies Workshop Press (Rochester, New York) as an offset-printed artist's book, blending photographs, line drawings, manipulated text, and graphic design elements.

• Core Concept: Playfully interrogates the physical and conceptual nature of books. Deschamps uses a meta-narrative structure where the act of reading, flipping pages, and living a life become intertwined, questioning how human lives are compressed into published volumes.

• Visual Style: Combines Deschamps' signature wry humor, satirical storytelling, sequential imagery, and collage-like page layouts that subvert traditional photo-book conventions.

• Significance: Stands as a classic example of late-20th-century artists' bookmakers pushing the boundaries of photographic narrative, highlighting Visual Studies Workshop's key role in the American independent artist publishing movement.

• François Deschamps (born 1946) is an American photographer, book artist, and professor celebrated for his conceptual, humor-infused approaches to narrative and visual media. Raised bilingually in New York City, Deschamps initially pursued advanced studies in mathematics and topology before redirecting his analytical background toward fine art and earning an MS in photography from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. His work frequently explores cultural intersection, memory, travel, and the interplay between concept and physical form through offset-printed artists' books and photographic assemblages. A longtime professor of photography and related media at the State University of New York at New Paltz, Deschamps has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Fulbright award to Mali, with his works held in major public collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.