The Museum of Imaginary Paintings.

From Balzac to Houellebecq—including Poe, Flaubert, Zola, Proust, Aragon, Claude Simon, and many others—many writers have focused on inventing painter characters or meticulously describing paintings of their own invention. What might these imaginary paintings look like? This is the serious question this book asks, having fun reconstructing them using the tools of painting and computers. And by questioning the relationships these writers had with painting. Were they painters themselves, art critics, or collectors? Did they frequent museums, art galleries, and exhibitions? Did they frequent the artists of their time? What kind of painting did they like? And what influences do these works reveal about painting on their writing?

Frédéric Gaussen, a former journalist at Le Monde, is the author of several books on painting: Paris of Painters, Visits to Studios, The Painter and His Studio, Guide to Painters in Paris.
Philippe Mouchès is a painter and member of Oupeinpo (Workshop of Potential Painting, created in conjunction with Oulipo). He is the author, with Olivier Salon, of Histoire de l'art et d'en rire and Carambolages and with Paul Fournel of Le Lagarde et Panard.