'go to hell'

A very good copy of his ground-breaking collection which opens with the notorious Futurist manifesto with a title instructing the reader to 'Go to hell'. In his memoirs Benedikt Livshits records that some of Filonov and Burliuk's illustrations were deemed indecent, and that the publication was confiscated by the Committee of the Press; it is rumoured that only about a dozen copies were spirited out of the printing house (cf. Markov, Russian Futurism, pp.168-172).

This collection of miscellaneous pieces was produced by members of Hylaea and the Union of Youth in order to coincide with the Italian futurist Marinetti's visit to Russia. The contributors were Mayakovsky, the Burliuks, Kamensky, Livshits, Kruchenykh, Guro, Khlebnikov and Severeianin. The book was published by Guro's husband Mikhail Matiushin who also produced the landmark work Sadok Sudei.

First edition, 8vo (22.5 x 16.7); printed on various paper stocks, illustrations throughout by Vladimir and David Burliuk, Olga Rozanova, Ivan Puni and Pavel Filonov; original printed wrappers designed by Puni, short close tear to wrapper, spine glued and some loss of paper but holding fine, publisher's stamp to lower wrapper, a very good copy.