The Address Book

The Address Book is Sophie Calle’s project about a stranger’s lost address book, published by Siglio in 2012 as the first complete English edition.

Calle found an address book on a Paris street, copied its pages and returned it anonymously to its owner. She then contacted the people listed in it and followed him through his family, friends, lovers and acquaintances. Her written accounts of those encounters, set beside her photographs, first ran as a serial in the newspaper Libération over one month in 1983. As the entries accumulate they form a portrait of the owner, Pierre D., out of details that are offered, sifted and withheld, while Calle also turns the questions on her own fears and assumptions. Siglio calls it a key and controversial work in her output. The book is a hardback of 104 pages with 26 black-and-white and 2 color images, designed in collaboration with the artist.

Calle was born in 1953. Her work joins conceptual art, investigative methods and fictional constructs across books, photography, film, writing, performance and installation. Siglio also publishes her The Hotel, The Sleepers and Suite Vénitienne.