Livre Sans Poche : Interview with Yann Trehin

Yann Trehin was a member of Strategie Alimentaire which was a very inspiring fanzine editor. (You may know the work of Samuel Mann or Guillaume Soulatges or the fanzine La Commissure…) Have a look at his work it is worth it : Avancement 06 , Avancement 07. (Two brilliant web pages I think.)

He agreed to answer to some questions about the Livre Sans Poche… (livre sans poche : literally, book without a pocket)


A: I suppose I could do it. But I let you introduce the idea of Livres Sans Poches…

Y: The "Livres Sans Poches" are thin-sized photocopied fanzines (A6, black and white, 16 pages) which are distributed according to the bookcrossing principle. This means that each copy is given away or made available in a public place so it can be read by someone who in turn will make it available to somebody else etc. Thus the books circulate from reader to reader and belong to everybody and nobody at the same time. Also, there is a website where people are welcome to comment, write about the places where they found the books and the way in which they passed them on… The books are numbered, which makes it possible to trace the different routes they cover. On this website you can also print out the books and make use of them as you wish.











A: Considering the random distribution of these fanzines and their wide accessibility, do you envisage any mismatch in the interaction between the books and a public which they were not intended for?

Y: Obviously, this distribution principle is part of the book project (to facilitate comprehension, the principle is quite plainly exposed on the fourth cover so that anybody who might come across such a book can grasp the essence). Thus, total freedom being allowed, all readers are invited to involve dynamically and creatively in the physical life of these books by choosing where to make them available, by sharing opinions through the website and even by uploading photos of abandoned books. In conclusion there are no mismatches actually, but a wide range of possibilities implied by the concept. On the other hand, I can see the meaning underlying your question, given the fact that all the books fundamentally embrace the same aesthetics. However I don’t think that the concept of 'Livre Sans Poche' implies creating a book deprived of originality, just to match any taste. In other words, I just publish things that I like, and that's the bottom line.











A: On the back cover of the book which you allowed me to create I made the suggestion for readers to discreetly slip some Livres Sans Poches inside other books… This was my reaction to the prospective that some Livres Sans Poches might end up being available in bookshops. Can't this attitude be interpreted as a desire to assimilate the distribution facilities? Is this not an incentive to use these facilities for other purposes and without formalities?

Y: No doubt, I created Livres Sans Poches in reaction to the issues that the distribution of fanzines might involve in terms of price, merchandising etc.. I had a huge desire to say FUCK: nobody creates fanzines to make money; then why should we play the vendors to distribute our books? The bookcrossing concept offers the possibility to deliver books outside the merchandising system and this is very good. Your proposition to squat bookshops may be regarded as a kind of invitation to pirate the system... Ok, why not? But as far as I'm concerned I would say that there are other alternatives available, to elude the current 'culture diffusion' marketing system. It is slightly utopian but that is the reason I feel even more motivated to fight."

A: Any notable reactions from authors or readers?

Y: In general, all the people to whom I presented the concept - mostly during the comix festivals, were very receptive…. The only decidedly negative feedback came from a book dealer labeled “if I like a book I keep it”. Of course! But the Livre sans Poche concept states exactly the opposite!

G : My analogy may be far-fetched but I've noted in the Livre Sans Poche a quite strong connection to reality : the content of the book isn’t confined to what’s between its covers. I feel pretty much the same about your drawings and music (listen to Yann's music here).

Y : As regards my drawings I’m not sure we can establish a correlation with reality because my art is never mimetic. I always draw from memory. My images aren’t real: they are pure fantasies playing with this pretence of the seeming reality. Getting back to Livres Sans Poches, we deal with books, which are real, tangible objects. As to the wide range of possibilities offered by the Internet, in our opinion they represent a valid option. I think that one of the fundamental ideas of bookcrossing is to show that the exchange processes which develop by means of the Internet can also be found in the physical world. This is beyond doubt a very utopian point of view. But I believe that it opens new paths for reflection. And there’s still a long way to go!

An Interview With Noémie Barsolle

I emailed Noemie Barsole in order to get the new issue of Saignante ("Bleeding Woman" I guess could be an acceptable translation for "Saignante"; The blog of this fanzine is to be found here)… She draws very well. Her work is strong and true to her life. She agreed to answer some questions about it. You can have a look at her blog here… And don’t forget to hit the comment button If you wish to tell her something, I’m sure she will read them.




G: Hi Noemie. How are you?
N: Very good thanks. I have a small cold but nothing serious.

G: I’d like to ask you some questions about Vague à larmes. From my opinion it is a beautiful book. Where did you draw it ? Did you do it in a café ? In you room ? With friends ?
N: I began the sketches and the first drawings at my job (I worked at the time in a survey institute), I was drawing whilst interviewing people on the phone. Then I drew all the other pages alone in the woods, during nice sunny days of the summer time. Actually I got the collages ready at home listening to the radio and then I moved to settle down in the woods.

G: What did you feel when you drew it? Was it this sort of lonely anguishe and the vulnerability which is present at the beginning of the book?
N: Actually I was entangled with very complicated sentimental stories which inspired me most of the book. But originally the monstrous character came from a dream. All the story "vague à larme" relates to a period of my life when I felt alone confronting existential and practical questions about love, couple relationship, and what they generated inside my body. I was confused by alcohol induced euphoria and by the exaltation of affective or sexual love stories. All that created inside of me obsessions and true drifting which I needed to flush out by means of drawing.

G: In page 5 a mysterious boy, who is into bondage, appears. He looks very cute actually. The walking girl is scared when she realises that he has spied on her. Then the boy is transformed into a grotesque but reassuring monster. I’d like to know more about this… Could it be anguishing idealisation of the unknown which is transformed after a while into reassuring but disgusting trivial fact?
N: I am going to describe this character: he doesn’t physically exist. He is the fruit of the girl’s imagination. Some kind of undisclosable phantasm which is embodied in this grotesque, mysterious and scary figure. She doesn’t know him but she has known from the beginning that he has followed her. As something which she has voluntarily repressed which is quickly coming back and which you have to cope with. Somehow it is similar to waking up from a nightmare without knowing the end of it. He keeps his mask because she doesn’t admit who he is. This character (it is kind of a revelation) will give birth to anguishes and introspections which are at the core of all the rest of the book.
G: Where does symbolism appear in the work? For example could the last drawing be an overview on different possible lives for the girl we saw at the beginning ?
N: All the images are full of symbolism. Each one reveals a fragment of my intimate life. It is more or less clear to the reader and limpid for me. Sexes represent men and women , and in a way I am the young girl. The masked character is more complex. At the beginning he is hidden, he isn’t much scary but he is intriguing, he is the repressed element which gallops in the direction of consciousness and self. He becomes then a bit more monstrous when he half unveils and his sight will bring the girl into the mazes of her thoughts and she will by that means live an introspection by revisiting her innermost soul, her fantasy, her fears, her anguishes, in short everything which disturbs her and makes her doubt about the elements of her daily life. The next to last image represents her total immersion inside of herself with the possibility to start again from the beginning. The last character who is covered with eyes is the masked man whom we saw at the beginning. He comes back as a chorus but, anyway, she has moved on because she has unmasked him, she understood him. The eye could symbolise clear or guilty conscience (inside the grave the eye was watching Cain) on the contrary the masked man at the beginning belonged to repressed feelings and unconsciousness.

G: There are pictures related to everyday life and depressed feelings in Vague à larmes. Are those drawings expressing some kind of revolt?
N: Possibly… But it is an innermost revolt. I didn’t denounce anything. I just tried to express deep feelings which I encountered at a time when I felt very lonely, very lonely in "my woman’s role". A woman who drinks is not respected, a woman who flirts is a whore, and a woman who does not want children isn’t normal, she is called a nullipara. This scientific term contains the word null ! I had to encounter criticism as often from men than from women and systematically. This book came from my incapacity to defend myself by speaking and as a consequence it could be a type of revolt.

G: Do you think intimimacy and social commitments are compatible in a work ?
N: Hem… I think the previous answer could work for this one as well. But it’s true it is difficult to be understood because when you talk about yourself, you are nourished by your own universe which could be obscure for many people. And political commitments means something only if they can be shared, or could make somebody want to share them.

G: Any plans for the future ?
N: I drew a 40 pages comic which is very dear to me and I’d like to publish it by hook or by crook.
G: Thank you ! Bye.
N: Bye!