LE DICTIONNAIRE DES IDÉES REÇUES – FRAGMENTS
Typography|Layout|Production
This public artwork transforms Flaubert's Dictionnaire des idées reçues into a monumental ceramic tile wall in Rouen's Jardin Saint‑Sever. Spanning 15 meters long and 2.3 meters high, the installation invites passersby to encounter Flaubert's ironic, critical voice in a physical, urban space. As one of the chosen students from ESAM Caen, I helped reinterpret selected dictionary entries through typography, working under the guidance of artists Françoise Schein and Pierre‑Marc de Biasi. We explored how typefaces, scale, spacing, and composition could amplify the meaning of each word, creating a visual back‑and‑forth between the text and its ironic intent.
Our process started with a simple but ambitious brief: make Flaubert's dictionary entries readable, ironic, and visually distinct. Each student on the team was assigned a subset of entries, and the goal was to make the typography echo the sarcasm of the original text. Once the layouts were approved, we moved to production. Because each student worked on their own entries, the final 15 meter wall reads as a collective piece unified in material but full of individual voices.
(Street View image with final work: https://maps.apple/la/p.wEqqfCgpfdN8)