Luxury edition of the Musée Picasso Paris Collection
by Flammarion
The paper : Primacoat silk 60 g/m²
The Musée Picasso Paris, which first opened in 1985 in the magnificent Hôtel Salé, reopened its doors on 25th October, marking the master painter’s would-be birthday. Members of the public are now able to discover or even rediscover the wonderful collections of the Musée Picasso in the Marais district, one of the oldest areas of the French capital. To celebrate this momentous event, French publishing house Flammarion has produced an exceptional book on his masterpieces, which is available in three versions: standard edition, hardback, and a limited luxury edition.
The luxury cloth-bound edition of the Musée Picasso Paris Collection comprises 400 photographs of the museum, taken especially for the occasion, as well as several essays retracing the artist’s journey. Part of the edition is printed on Bolloré Thin Papers’ Primacoat Silk 60 g/m2
Questions for Corinne Trovarelli, head of production at Flammarion’s illustrated books department
When did you start working with Bolloré Thin Papers? 
We first started working together in 2012, when Flammarion decided to use Bolloré’s Primacoat Silk thin paper for the luxury edition of the book ‘Paris Haute Couture’, a catalogue for the exhibition of the same name which was held at the Paris city hall. The paper’s elegant and silky appearance was perfect for printing photographs of haute couture, opulent fabrics and for the delicate Japanese binding method we used to assemble the luxury edition. This comprehensive tome, a collection of the best creations in haute couture, was given the top prize at the Nuit Du Livre® 2013 awards.
How would you describe your collaborative work with Bolloré Thin Papers?
Bolloré Thin Papers’ success lies in their thin paper range. This is thanks to the originality and high standard of their materials, as well as their incredible print quality even despite their low grammage. When working with Bolloré, we expect the same things as we do from the rest of our partners: we need them to be reliable, responsive, inventive and good at coming up with solutions and giving advice. Exhibition catalogues make up the best part of the work published by Flammarion’s illustrated books department. In terms of printing, these catalogues demand incredible precision and there is no room for delivery delays. We have been very pleased with the work we’ve done with Bolloré Thin Papers so far; we’re so glad we started working with them!
Does this book showcase any specific needs that Bolloré Thin Papers had to take into account?
We had seen Bolloré’s range of coated thin papers, as had our printer, who, to be extra sure, wanted to run a test print. We were very happy with the results and gave Bolloré the green light to print on their Primacoat Silk paper. In total, the limited edition has 596 pages, of which around 40 are printed on Primacoat Silk 60 g/m2. We have printed 3,500 copies of it in French and 3,000 in English. For this luxurious volume, split into 3 parts, we wanted to use colours that were both vivid and modern for the cloth-bound covers, matching the bright, varied colours that Picasso loved to paint with.