Francois Bauchet’s furniture objects stand in a frontier between functionality and the work of art, and raise questions about the importance of the presence and material reality of things in a world dedicated to the image. Bauchet has been working in this mode since as early as 1979, and in the eighties he created a great number of pieces for art institutions–for example, he designed furniture for the Jeu de Paume museum in France–as well as numerous furniture models. He has progressed from using lacquered wood, to working with resin, and now uses raw fabrics and ceramics to create furniture that challenges our preconceptions, but always with elegance and subtlety. In addition to beautiful reproductions of his works, this volume contains an interview with Bauchet conducted by Claire Foyalle, a design historian and an essay by Jacques Bonnaval, Director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and editor of Azimuts magazine.