[Zdanevich, Il'ya] Iliazd, pseud.

8vo (193 x 145mm.), number 203 of 530 copies, one of 500 on papier Rubel, typographic designs by the author throughout, original decorative collaged wrappers by Naum Granovskii, glassine wrapper, spine ends bumped, glacine wrapper chipped

Hellyer 144; Ex-Libris 84; The Russian Avant-Garde Book 458-459

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Zdanevich published a series of dramatic works between 1919 and 1923 with the general title of Aslaab Lch'ia. Zdanevich's main interest and concern throughout this period was with the appearance of the book and the phonetic qualities of words. This phoneticism was practiced by the Futurist group known as "41 degrees" of which Zdanevich was an influential member.

Zdanevich saw Lidantiu Farat as the culmination of everything that had taken place during the past ten years within the radical Russian Avant-Garde movement. It was in this work that he achieved perfection with his typographic depiction of the "zaum" (transrational) language used by the Futurists. The enormously varied typography illustrates the range of sounds, staccato etc. used in the "zaum" language and allows the pages to have a wonderful rhythmic and fluid movement all of their own. Each character has its own distinct language and in the course of the work Zdanevich introduces more than 1600 new words.

This last play in the series is dedicated to Mikhail Lidantiu, an obscure Avant-Garde artist who died in 1917 during the war, whom Zdanevich turns into the hero as the relationship between art and reality, death, murder and resurrection is explored. The play was published after Zdanevich moved to Paris, where he became part of the Dadaist movement. It was published under the pseudonym of "Iliazd", a contraction of his own full name, which he henceforth always used.

"The play, which combines slapstick with the solution of aesthetic problems, may be considered the oddest literary work of Russia, but it is unquestionably a masterpiece of the Russian poetic avant-garde" (Markov, pp.354-357).