Rachel, Monique..

"Rachel, Monique.." is Sophie Calle's book of her mother, built from diary pages and family photographs after Monique Szyndler's death in 2007.

The title comes from the line embroidered on the cover: "She was called successively Rachel, Monique, Szyndler, Calle, Pagliero, Gonthier, Sindler." Calle selected diary excerpts and photographs from family albums to trace her mother's life and her own complicated relationship with her, reproducing the artist's installation "Rachel, Monique" shown at the Palais de Tokyo. This 2017 Editions Xavier Barral edition is bilingual, with an embroidered cover and embossed text designed together with the artist.

Calle, born in 1953, works across photography, text, and installation, turning tensions between what is observed, reported, secret, and unsaid into her subject. She represented France at the 2007 Venice Biennale, where she premiered "Couldn't Capture Death," a film recording her mother's final moments. This book returns to the same death.