Photographs by Viviane Sassen
Text by Emanuele Coccia
7,8 × 10,2 inches
20 × 26 cm
160 pages
Translated from French by Lucas Faugère
Graphic design: Agnès Dahan Studio
Publication date: July 2022
Co-production: JBE Books × Perrier-Jouët
English edition
ISBN: 978-2-36568-063-9
🗞️ « This book can serve as a model to all those who try to reinvent the marriage of words and images in contemporary art. »
– The Leonardo Review
📰 « En disséquant les corps et la matière, Alchimie moderne nous invite à prendre conscience de la continuité entre création et nature, et nous ramène à la pureté du monde. »
– The Art Newspaper
💬 « This stunner from JBE Books is a smart, surprising and fruitful dialogue between photographer Viviane Sassen and philosopher Emanuele Coccia. »
– AnOther Mag
Modern Alchemy is the brainchild of Viviane Sassen and Emanuele Coccia. The photographer and the philosopher—both leading figures in their fields—weaved together images and words, engaging in a fruitful dialogue deeply rooted in the Champagne terroir and the inspiring relationship Maison Perrier-Jouët entertains with art and nature.
A series of 80 photographs and an essay intersect and collide, creating a space where the creativity of matter throughout all living things can be marveled at anew. Pictures mix and match with ideas, the history of planet Earth encounters that of artistic creation, and matter joins hands with the mind—producing an infinitely manifold work of art and establishing a modern alchemy where both vision and thought can be upended and renewed.
