"Came à Yeux" literally means "drug for eyes" and is a wordplay on the art term "camïeu", monochrome painting in different shades of the same colour. Alexone uses, more often than not, colours that refer to this technique, combining several shades of greens, red and blues to create a "ton sur ton" dimensionality that is then usually broken with another, contrasting colour which adds even more life to the vibrant pieces.

This book shows a selection of Alexone's works between 2004 and 2006, reaching from pictures of his exhibitions all over Europe where the playing with space and background in his installations is very interesting, over posters in the streets, studio pictures where you can see his work in progress, collaborations with other artists, sketches, typography, beer cards, murals, digital works and Alexone's famous paintings with acrylics, markers, spraycans and collaged mixed media techniques, where characters like his trademark blindfolded penguins battle medieval knights and cowboys on horses.

Alexone put another interesting little detail in this book: apart from doing the lay-out himself, he also included the names of the songs he listened to during the period of conception of the artworks featured. Like this, he makes the crossover to yet another art form, which works very refreshing.

Apart from the excellent content, the book from the outside is also one of the nicest I've ever seen. It has not only a hardback cover with an extra layer of glossy transparent varnishing ink, but also rounded corners and gilded paper sides - costs haven't been spared for this classy publication yet the price has been kept amazingly low. Not many publishers would be up for all the extra finishing touches that the artist conceived on top of the many pages filled with great photos and scans of his art and projects, but this makes buying the book at a fairly low price all the more worthwhile! Respect!

Alexone: "Came à Yeux", published by Kitchen93, 210 x 190 mm, 208 colour pages, €26. Available online and distributed in all the good French bookstores.

- Eva