In 1929, the German artist Max Ernst (1891-1976) created what is considered by most art historians to be the first “collage book”—an important precursor of the modern graphic novel. Titled, La Femme 100 têtes, the book reassembles materials from a wide-range of late 19th century illustrated natural histories, magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries and soft-core pornographic books. The results are extraordinary, and along with his 1930 Rêve d’une Petite Fille qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil) and the 1934 Une Semaine de Bonte (A Week of Kindness) published in 1934.
Ernst was a remarkable innovator. His use (and invention) of techniques such frottage (the use of pencil rubbings as sources) and grattage (the scraping of paint across a painted canvas) anticipated widely used techniques employed in contemporary software programs such as Corel Draw, Illustrator and Photoshop.
All three of Ernst’s graphic novels contain little or no text, and have deliberately vague story lines. They are dream-like, perplexing, occasionally titillating, sometimes frightening and thoroughly engaging.
I have recently completed a book length project titled Trump in Wonderland: A Fable for Our Age, which recasts La Femme 100 têtes in the form of an allegory that reworks the original Ernst material with the Trump visual/collaged material and quotes from his tweets and speeches. A PDF file of this work can be linked to here. I have recently completed this project and hope to have it exhibited in the next year.
100 Heads Trump Book PDF100 Heads Trump Book PDF 
BEAUTIFUL WEATHER ALL OVER OUR GREAT COUNTY, A PERFECT DAY FOR ALL WOMEN TO MARCH. GET OUT THERE NOW TO CELEBRATE THE HISTORIC MILESTONES AND UNPRECEDENTED ECONOMIIC SUCCESS AND WEALTH CREATION THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS LOWEST FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN18 YEARS. –Donald Trump
A project is currently underway using the Rêve d’une Petite Fille qui Voulut Entrer au Carmel (A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil) to create dioramasof the life of Barbie.
In a similar way to La Femme 100 tête, in Beyond Max Ernst, I have took a selection of seventy-five collages from Un Semaine de Bonte and have laid on them materials from lingerie advertisements and pinup (“Girlie”) illustrations from the 1940s-1960s.
These additions, which are almost always in color, are intended to extend the meaning, enigma and dreamlike quality of Ernst’s work. The works which result should be understood as both slightly silly and very serious. They represent a continuation of Ernst’s work and the surrealist tradition of the 1920s and 1930s.
Collages from the series Beyond Max Ernst have been included in various exhibits including twenty collages that were exhibited at the Shenandoah Fringe Festival April 9-10, 2017, Staunton, Virginia. DADA/SURREALIM: A VISUAL COLLABORATION WITH HAPPENSTANCE THEATER, exhibited at the Baltimore Theater Project, October 26-November 12, 2017 included Beyond Max Ernst collages. From December 1, 2018-January 31, 2019 Black Swan Books and Records hosted the exhibit Dada and Surrealism: Modern and Postmodern Perspectives that included collages from the series.
