Exquisite Pain
By Sophie Calle
2003
First Published
4.39
Average Rating
283
Number of Pages
A poignant visual record of the obsessive nature of failed love by a leading French contemporary artist. Over the last two decades, Sophie Calle has made it her business to follow, peek into, and illuminate the lives of people she barely knows. In Exquisite Pain, Calle turns her attention to a life-changing experience from her own past. This book is a visual record of the time in 1985 when a lover failed to meet Calle as promised in a hotel in New Delhi. Calle was devastated. As always, she kept everything from that journeyphotographs, ticket stubs, visas, and letterseach image rubber-stamped to mark the countdown to the fateful day of her heartbreak. On her return to Paris, she asked a group of friends to answer the question, "When did you most suffer?" Their stories of pain, each of them accompanied by a photograph, interplay with Calle's own story and daily reflections"It is now seventy-five days since the man I love left me"creating a testament to the heartache of romantic rejection. 130 illustrations, 71 in color.
Avg Rating
4.39
Number of Ratings
486
5 STARS
59%
4 STARS
26%
3 STARS
11%
2 STARS
3%
1 STARS
1%
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Author
Sophie Calle
Author · 17 books
Sophie Calle is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. Her photographic work often includes panels of text of her own writing.
