Anne et Patrick Poirier, Dans les nervures du temps

We know many artist couples: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov –who will be in the limelight for Monumenta at the Grand Palais in May_, Gilbert & George, Christo and Marie-Jeanne, the Bechers… The Poiriers are definitely part of that club and one of the interesting aspects of this book is to decipher the binary operating mode. We look more in detail into their obsessions, such as their work on remains and ruins, which have left us some spicy anecdotes: when, for example, as they had just finished making some copies in Pompey, the guards thought they were robbing the columns. Anne, born in 1941, was brought up in Marseille while Patrick, born in 1942, was brought up in Nantes. Their paths crossed at the school of Arts déco and they never parted: May 68, Villa Médicis at the time of Balthus, the numerous trips, the exhibitions – as well as their shared sorrows such as the brutal death of their only son in 2002. The strength of their relationship can be resumed by one anecdote: Anne and Patrick Poirier both applied to one same teaching job. A true puzzle for the administration which rejected them … twice.

• Anne et Patrick Poirier, Dans les nervures du temps, interviews with avec Françoise Jaunin, La Bibliothèque des Arts, 2013, 160 p.,€15.