Francois Bauchet's furniture objects stand in a frontier between functionality and the work of art, and raise questions about the importance of the presence and material reality of things in a world dedicated to the image. Bauchet has been working in this mode since as early as 1979, and in the eighties he created a great number of pieces for art institutions -- for example, he designed furniture for the Jeu de Paume museum in France -- as well as numerous furniture models. He has progressed from using lacquered wood, to working with resin, and now uses raw fabrics and ceramics to create furniture that challenges our preconceptions -- but always with elegance and subtlety. In addition to beautiful reproductions of his works, this volume contains an interview with Bauchet conducted by Claire Foyalle, a design historian, and an essay by Jacques Bonnaval, Director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and editor of Azimuts magazine.