Man Ray painted his first letter “Y” in 1923 as an homage to his friend Yves Tanguy. Even earlier, he contemplated creating an alphabet of Rayographs (photograms) but gave up the idea as too lengthy.

Following the publication of his English-language Alphabet for Adults in 1940, Man Ray embarked on the creation of a French edition of this art-book, Alphabet Pour Adultes. Rather than simply ...