The literary work of Wols, who died in Paris in exile in 1951 at only 38 years, consists of aphorisms. Written in French, they are testimony to disillusioning experiences in internment camps, during the war, and in the post-war period - and a significant contribution to existentialist literature. Wols, who admired William Faulkner, Edgar Allan Poe, Lautréamont, Kafka and Jean-Paul Sartre and was friends with Henri- Pierre Roché, noted his thoughts on tiny notes that he constantly carried with him in a small travel bag. Nearly 60 years after the artist's death, art historian Hans-Joachim Petersen has merged, transcribed and edited these notes from the estate for this first overall edition of the aphorisms of Wols. A selection of 36 works - photographs, watercolours and paintings - round, in excellent quality and usually printed in colour, this book is a Wols book that has no equal. Wols, born in 1913 as Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, is one of the pioneers of informel and tachism. His first paintings were created in 1932, in 1933 he emigrated to Paris, where he first worked as a photographer. In his photographic portraits and still lifes, he developed into the master of suggestive close-up. The first drawings and watercolours were created during the internment in 1939/40, from 1945 the focus was on oil painting. His early death in 1951 contributed to the myth surrounding perhaps the only peintre maudit of our time.