12mo. 65 pp. Illustrated with 19 b/w ​​reproductions including one on the cover. Warmly inscribed in blue ink by Magritte on the half title to the publishers of the work "felicite les Établissements generaux d'Imprimerie pour leur beau travai,l" congratulating the printers (as recorded at the end of the volume, the "Établissements Généraux d’Imprimerie") "for their fine work,"dated 15/12/1943 and surrounding his signature with a small geometric drawing. Ref: Mariën, Surr. in Belgium, p. 333. Scattered foxing and toning, overall a fine copy.

Published the same year as Mariën's monograph, Les Images défendues is nevertheless a work written 10 years earlier, excerpts from which had appeared in "Le surréalisme au service de la Révolution". Paul Nougé, sometimes known as the "Belgian Breton," was a Belgian poet and philosopher and was one of the most influential members of the Surrealist school in Belgium. He was a friend and associate of fellow artists Louis Scutenaire, Marcel Mariën and René Magritte, who was influenced by his poetry. A biochemist by training, Nougé wrote aphoristically, producing tracts, open letters, and theoretical essays, later gathered in Histoire de ne pas rire (1956). His assiduous commentaries on the surreal canvases of his friend Magritte, printed here, are as gnomic and provocative as the paintings.