François Schuiten illustrates Sylvain Tesson's "Sur les chemins noirs"

Exhibition and sale from February 5th to April 18th , 2026

To mark the release of the limited edition of Sylvain Tesson's book Sur les chemins noirs illustrated by François Schuiten, the Gallimard Gallery presents an exhibition of original drawings by François Schuiten created using the scratchboard technique.

 

The exhibition

Sur les chemins noirs is the intimate account of Sylvain Tesson's trek across France between August and November 2015. He sets out to discover a wild and little-known country, an opportunity for him to rediscover himself after the terrible accident that nearly cost him his life in August 2014. Taking small, forgotten paths, he travels to these vast territories that have miraculously escaped the onslaught of urbanization and technology, but which, through his writing, appear inhabited by a vibrant, turbulent, and fascinating life.

 

 

Through 30 original, splendid and incisive drawings, created using the scratchboard technique, François Schuiten first guides us into a world of shadows, where white is lost in dark landscapes, gradually leading us towards the rediscovered light of Sylvain Tesson.
The original drawings by François Schuiten are accompanied by personal documents (sketches, styluses, maps) from the artist and Sylvain Tesson.

 

 

"It took running around the world and falling off a roof for me to realize that right there, before my very eyes, in a country so close yet whose hidden corners I didn't know, lay a network of country paths open to mystery, bathed in pure silence, miraculously empty. Life was giving me a chance, so it was high time to cross France on foot along its dark paths."
There, no one tells you how to behave, what to think, or even which direction to take.

Sylvain Tesson

 

François Schuiten

© Éditions Gallimard / Francesca Mantovani

Belgian cartoonist François Schuiten is the author of numerous successful comic books, such as Les Cités obscures (1983-2009) and Le Dernier Pharaon (2019). He was notably awarded the Grand Prix de la Ville d'Angoulême in 2002.

 

publications

SYLVAIN TESSON
FRANÇOIS SCHUITEN
Sur les chemins noirs
168 pages, 43 illustrations
19.5 × 24.8 cm
€35

 

Limited edition in a slipcase accompanied by a numbered and signed digigraph by Sylvain Tesson and François Schuiten:

Special edition, mottled black on 3 sides
168 pages, 43 illustrations, 19.5 × 24.8 cm
white screen-printed box 21.5 × 27 × 4 cm

100 copies
€350