Yves Dauteuille's 'La Collection' Catalogues the Impossible

Yves Dauteuille's book 'La Collection', published by Flammarion, reimagines the private collection not as an accumulation of treasures but as a gathering of the ordinary and the absurd. Dauteuille begins where most collections end: at the moment of dispersal, when items are sold off on a well-known website. His collection, assembled from cast-offs, includes objects like a 'white desk (school accelerator)', a 'coat rack (or ham dryer)', and 'the family album of the invisible man'. The book itself is described as 'an infinitely cheap book'. The texts and images lift everyday objects into an imaginary realm, with a melancholic, slightly manic joy. A notable entry is the 'valet for the thrifty dandy', which holds only a single vine leaf. The epigraph by Alexandre Vialatte reads: 'Man is but dust. That is to say the importance of the feather duster.' Michel Vignard reviews the work, comparing it to Carelman's 'Catalogue of Unfindable Objects'.