Born in 1902, Germaine Richier was the first woman artist to be exhibited in her lifetime at the Musée national d'art moderne in 1956. Continuing the great tradition of bronze statuary, her work forged new images of men and women after the Second World War, playing with assemblage and hybridization with the forms of nature. More than sixty-five years later, the retrospective organized jointly by the Centre Pompidou and the Musée Fabre takes a new look at this major artist.

A synthesis of the most recent research, the catalog testifies to the central place of Germaine Richier in her time and, more broadly, to her decisive impact on the history of 20th century sculpture. The book brings together essays that reconsider her sculptural and graphic work. White cards entrusted to writers such as Mika Biermann, Marie Darrieussecq, Maryline Desbiolles, Philippe Lançon, but also to the philosopher Geneviève Fraisse, the anthropologist Charles Stépanoff and the artist ORLAN, testify to the contemporary resonances of his sculpture, which never ceases to question our relationship to nature, identity, and finitude. An anthology of texts gives the artist a voice, while a richly illustrated chronology, with excerpts from unpublished correspondence, restores both the singularity of his career and the originality of his creation.