IMAGERIES: TOM THUMB; SNOW WHITE; LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD; THE FABLE OF HAZARD; SLEEPING BEAUTY; CINDERELLA.

First collected edition, first printing. Six volumes. French, English, German and Japanese text. Accordion / leporello bindings, all with clothbound boards in different colours with decorative paper title labels to the upper boards, save for 'The Fable of Hazard / la Fable du Hasard', which has pictorial paper-covered boards. Each volume is housed in an individual clear acrylic slipcase; the slipcased books are housed together in a large, glossy pictorial card box. With colour lithographs throughout by Lavater Warja. A very near fine set, the cloth bindings square, tight and fresh, 'The Fable of Hazard' with slight dustiness at the extremities and a minor bump to the bottom right corner of the upper board, 'Cinderella' with a very faint mark to the upper board. The contents are bright and clean throughout and without previous owners' inscriptions or stamps. The acrylic slipcases are lightly scuffed, the large card box is bright and structurally sound with a little light rubbing and a few minor scuffs. An excellent example of a scarce set.

A fascinating collection of fairy tales told solely through visual symbols by the multidisciplinary Swiss artist Warja Lavater (1913-2007). Each volume includes a key that provides the meanings of the symbols, unique to each story, in French, English and German, save for 'Little Red Riding Hood', which also lists the meanings in Japanese, and 'The Fable of Hazard', which is entirely in French (and also includes an introduction and afterword). The stories are otherwise entirely wordless. Lavater blends symbol and artwork to create colourful images that are highly reminiscent of abstract expressionism. The keys turn these seemingly abstract images into remarkable and clearly decipherable storytelling devices that function simultaneously as hieroglyphics and illustrations, blurring the lines between language and art. Lavater was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, and studied graphic design under the tutelage of Ernst Keller, 'the father of Swiss graphic design', at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts. She graduated in 1935 and soon opened a successful graphic design studio in Zurich with her husband, the graphic designer and artist Gottfried Honegger. The couple briefly lived in New York in the late 1950s where Lavater was inspired by American graphic design and the artists that she met in the city, such as Mark Rothko and Al Held. She continued to visit New York after moving to Paris 1959, and her first book, the leporello 'William Tell' was published by the Museum of Modern Art New York in 1962. In Paris she developed a close working relationship with the printing house and publisher Adrien Maeght Editeur (an offshoot of Gallerie Maeght that was known for creating prints for celebrated contemporary artists such as Marc Chagall and Joan Miró), who took over the production of her symbolic fairy tale leporellos for the next two decades.