Cover, image source: Praun & Guermouche

Notes

Printed at Rotolito / Nava Press, Milan

Publisher Note

The Disassembled Dictionary is a growing series of books that each, in various ways, discusses a particular word.
“Black” consists of the A–Z list and an adapted version of the essay by Oscar Guermouche from the book Noir – A Serendipitous Encyclopedia Inspired by 1001 Names for the Color Black by Sandra Praun. The essay touches, among other issues, Johann Itten’s color theory and Vantablack, yin and Kali, Sara-la-Kali and Le Chat Noir, black cats and black dogs, the Nazgûl and Darth Vader, Partito Nazionale Fascista, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, and British Union of Fascists, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black and Johnny Cash’s suit, the Great Plague and the Stock Market Crash in 1929, ”the black sheep of the family”, ”black market”, and ”black money”, the Black Panthers and Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s doll test, Latin ”niger” and Lingua Tertii Imperii.
"Black" also includes a part of an interview with Pierre Soulages by Siegfried Forster.