Melancholie – Wernischová Helena (2019)

Helena Wernischová began creating a completely original magazine in a single copy at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s - always carefully crafted on handmade paper, with irregular periodicity - and this extraordinary authorial endeavor has lasted for more than forty years. The melancholy connects the author's drawings and watercolors with text, mostly handwritten. Alongside dream records, there are countless quotes and excerpts from readings, from both world and Czech authors, poets and prose writers, thinkers and essayists. Thus, an exceptionally impressive and extensive work of literature and art has emerged, for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the Czech context. For the book edition, Wernischová chose the form of an authorial selection - it is therefore a newly thought-out and composed book. A more detailed insight into her work and the circumstances of the creation of Melancholies is also provided by two interviews in which Helena Wernischová answers questions from Radek Malý and Tereza Kodlová, as well as a text by her son Martin Wernisch.