Bellmer photographed in 1936-1937 a second, more flexible and articulated doll, staging it in woods, stairways and interiors, and these photographs, hand-coloured with aniline dyes, make up this artist's book. A performance of Hoffmann's tale in which the doll Coppélia has the leading role, at the dawn of Nazism, had prompted Bellmer to build an artificial girl whose ball joints are at the heart of its structure. This Surrealist collaboration came about when Paul Éluard selected fourteen images to be coupled with fourteen poems he wrote in 1938; Bellmer designed the layout himself, and a decade later the book appeared in Paris in a small signed edition. It is considered one of the most disturbing books of photography, balancing the extravagant productions of the unconscious against the documentary deadpan of the camera. Most surviving copies have been broken up over the years.