Hervé Télémaque (b.1937, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) lives and works in Paris.

His work has been shown in exhibitions in Europe and the US since the 1960s, and was the subject of a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou, Paris in 2015.

The academic, C.C. McKee draws on their specialism in the art and visual culture of the modern Atlantic world in order to read Télémaque’s work through a psychoanalytic lens and the context of Haitian art.

British artist Helen Marten and writer Lyonel Trouillot have composed thoughtful and poetic responses to Télémaque’s work, suggesting new points of entry into the artist’s œuvre.

Political scientist Françoise Vergès uses the artist’s recurring motif of the open mouth as a starting point for a meditation on Haitian history and the politics of anti-Blackness, while art historian Sarah Wilson’s text contextualises Télémaque’s practice within the wider European artistic scene.

This book also includes an extended interview with the artist, bringing together two rich conversations with Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as sections comprising selections of the artist’s writings and works on paper.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition, Hervé Télémaque: A Hopscotch of the Mind at Serpentine Gallery, London (7 October 2021 – 30 January 2022).