[Critique livre] The Witches of Venice – Sébastien Perez & Marco Mazzoni

The first unpublished novel in a new collection of beautiful illustrated books

The author Sébastien Perez and the designer/illustrator Marco Mazzoni having both worked several times with Benjamin Lacombeit is therefore not surprising that we find them here in tandem to The Witches of Venicean illustrated surrealist post-apocalyptic novel which is one of the first three titles to appear in the new collection from Editions Gallimard, Black Butterflydirected precisely by Lacombe.

Before coming to the novel, it is appropriate to say a little word about this new collection of illustrated books for adults, which also includes The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe, but also the reissue of Carmen by Prosper Mérimée which he illustrated for the Métamorphose collection from Editions Soleil in 2017. In the tradition of some of the beautiful editions illustrated by the French artist for years with different publishers, Papillon Noir presents itself as a collection bringing together classics from illustrated literature (from the collection of Gallimard editions), but also unpublished novels belonging to different genres, including The Witches of Venice is the first title to be published.

If, with regard to the model of the Portrait de Dorian Grayfor example, this one is identical to the models of the books illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe within the Métamorphose collection at Soleil, the differences are rather to be found in the finished book object itself since the Papillon Noir collection allows greater freedom of form (which is particularly felt on The Witches of Venice)with different types of selective varnishes on the cover or certain pages, but also layers which are juxtaposed with certain full-page illustrations, or even different types of paper from one part of a book to another, and which allows to go even further in the dialogue between text and image, allowing it to accompany it, but also to deploy it in another way. In the end, this allows another appreciation of the text, on which we can take a new look with regard to the classics of literature, which are also accompanied by appendices and specialist texts, making each work a literary object and complete artistic.

A particularly dark post-apocalyptic story

But let’s look at these Witches of Venicea unique work which, in both content and form, is clearly one of our favorites of this year. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Italy in an undefined time. A particularly violent pandemic has, for years, divided the population into several categories. Infected people (the flutterers) are separated from the “healthy” population and relegated to strictly controlled areas, with an obligation to care with serum in order to prevent them from being completely “papillated” (or not too quickly)… A term to be taken literally here since the virus literally attracts hundreds of butterflies which completely cover the person, penetrate them and devour them, transforming them into a bloodthirsty zombie with an unquenchable hunger. To try to stem the pandemic, any infected person is therefore not allowed to procreate and the serum is supposed to make infected women sterile. Children who still manage to be born in these circumstances are torn from their mothers by the government.

It is within this particularly dark and violent world that we meet Roberto and Simone, two friends who will meet an infected brother and sister, Manuele and Camilla – the latter being pregnant despite the serum. In order to avoid having her child taken from her, they decided to flee and try to reach a mythical island of witches located in Venice, where legend has it that infected people can live there in perfect safety without transforming into zombies. Roberto, Simone and their friend Dina will then decide, after finding the grimoire of the witch who caused the pandemic, to help the brother and sister in their quest. The journey, long and perilous, will obviously not go as planned…

A powerful surrealist SF story in both content and form

What is immediately striking when reading the Witches of Venice it is, beyond its darkness, its richness of evocation which, thanks to a surrealist form – in history in general, the form of narration as in the illustrations of Marco Mazzoni – allows us to echo our era, but in a free wayso that the work does not impose any strict message on the reader but opens more to a reflection on different levels… all while immersing us in an imaginary world as dark as it is exotic. This allows the book to play with the unconscious of our time rather than giving us an interpretation of it. in the narrow sense.

While it is difficult, therefore, to ignore the parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic, its confinements and the waves of vaccines that it has brought about and, of course, the fears (even the “psychosis”) that it has caused. has resurfaced among the population, The Witches of Venice does not appear as a criticism of the way in which this global crisis has been handled. On the other hand, this context allows Sébastien Perez to play with themes dear to science fiction literature, whether dystopian or anticipation novels.

So, as in a novel such as With you always (Never Let Me Go for its cinematographic adaptation) or the film by Alfonso Cuarón, The sons of manwe find this idea that a global health crisis encourages government(s) to exercise strict control over the population and divide it into different categories. Categories which are based, among other things, on a social dimension. If, in Cuarón’s film and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, this social dimension is explicit, it is more metaphorical in The Witches of Venice. Indeed, within the plot, any infected person (regardless of their origin) finds themselves separated from the rest of the population and subject to this control, giving rise to a new social model. But, obviously, the use of imaginative literature, halfway between fantasy, horror and SF, allows us to guess, implicitly, an unequal society where the least fortunate from a socio-economic point of view are subjected to a stigmatization of ever greater violence – which of course echoes our times. The fact that the plot takes place in Italy (the country where Marco Mazzoni also comes from) does not seem innocent either. More broadly, the novel is interested in the way in which different people, considered as “endangering the (hierarchical) order of society” of their time, are stigmatized, regardless of the era, being the object of a witch hunt which no longer speaks its name and today has other means and tools of oppression which, if they are more discreet and less “bloodthirsty”, are no less cruel.

Superb illustrations that interact intimately with the text

From there, the story (rather short) unfolds in an astonishing way, leading its characters into a dreamlike epic in which different influences mix in a fluid and personal way. Beyond science fiction literature, we feel a fairly clear influence of Victorian literature dear to collection director Benjamin Lacombe, and which is found in the extremely anxiety-inducing motif of butterflies infesting infected people until they cover them. , but also in the development of the story, particularly dark and desperate.

In the image, the result is astonishing and striking, Marco Mazzoni, with his ever-changing illustrations, allowing the work to unfold on the page with great force and freedom. The surrealist dimension, which becomes more accentuated as we progress in the story, once again allows us to appreciate these drawings subjectively and to let them resonate within us. While clearly coherent and controlled, the writing and drawing are never “directive” with the reader, which helps avoid falling into a simplistic or moralizing discourse that the work clearly rejects.

While the pretty cover may seem reminiscent of the style of Benjamin Lacombe (which we really like), the interior of the book is quite different and has different styles, with both the design and the layout evolving as the story develops. In the first part, we have these very beautiful pastel drawings with a retro look and still quite wise, where the bodies already seem slightly split, but also transparent, as if we could see through them – giving this world and the people populating it have a ghostly appearance, as if they were already doomed to disappear and making the semblance of order perceptible in the vision of this classroom with neatly aligned desks completely illusory – which is what the rest of the plot ( and illustrations) will confirm. Different periods seem to juxtapose: the 1950s, the arrival of the sexual revolution by the single “peace and love” logo drawn on the window by a child in a pencil drawing as beautiful as it is sad… The Victorian dimension, with its moths , is also clearly present, as is the baroque dimension with its vanities.

Although it would be tedious to comment on the illustrations from start to finish, the freedom of the drawing is striking and the change of paper (like a facsimile) when we move on to reading the medieval grimoire of the witch takes on its full meaning here and is accompanied, again, by a very successful graphic change, with black and white drawings which appear like so many surrealist engravings before returning to pencil drawings and pastels for the conclusion. In this sense, the choice of this novel to inaugurate the Papillon Noir collection and show all its potential in form, appears more than relevant.

In the end, The Witches of Venice is a real literary and artistic favorite, a beautiful illustrated book for adults which shows, if it were still necessary to prove it, that graphic arts and literature can mutually enrich each other through editions like these which are far away to be only “decorative” and in no way hinder the imagination of readers, as has long been the prevailing discourse in France, where illustrated editions have long been relegated to the domain of young people or viewed with circumspection.

After already strong adult works like The Cottingley FairiesSébastien Perez continues to surprise us through a powerful and personal story inspired by the literature of the imagination while Marco Mazzoni reveals himself to be a talented artist, whose work, rich and mastered, proves fascinating and fully participates in the immersion in this post-apocalyptic Italy. The book itself benefits from a quality edition, with a special mention for the different types of paper, which allow you to play even more with the image and the book object, in full coherence with the story that tells us is told. We can’t wait to discover the new products from the Papillon Noir collection!