Marcel Broodthaers | La Conquête de l'espace, Atlas à l'usage des artistes et des militaires

Marcel Broodthaers
La Conquête de l'espace, Atlas à l'usage des artistes et des militaires 
Brussels, Belgium/Hamburg, Germany: Lebeer Hossmann Éditeurs, 1975
38 pp., 4.2 x 2.9 x 1 cm., slipcase
Edition of 50 [+ 5 AP] unsigned copies, stamped and numbered by the publisher

The artist's last book, published shortly before his death in early 1976, The conquest of space, Atlas for the use of artists and the military, plays on language, scale and function. The paradoxical nature of a pocket Atlas for the military is clear - it is transportable but useless. The title consists of silhouettes of 32 countries, each printed on a separate page, causing them to appear as islands. They are arranged alphabetically, not geographically.