Mémoires is an experimental account of Guy Debord’s experiences around the time of his break with the Parisian avant-garde Lettrism movement and his subsequent formation of the Lettrist International, which later transitioned into the influential Situationist International. The work consists of two registers. One layer, printed in black ink, comprises startling juxtapositions of found texts and images transferred from magazines and newspapers as well as maps of Paris and London, which relate to Debord’s concept of “psychogeography,” an activity that involves directionless wandering through the urban landscape while monitoring one’s emotive responses.  The book’s second layer is Asger Jorn’s contribution of Rorschach-like splashes of color created spontaneously with an ink-loaded matchstick. Jorn is also credited with the idea of using sandpaper for the dust jacket. This element resonates with Situationist International’s various concepts and its related tendencies: it affords an enhanced sensory experience of the book as an object, recalling the group’s opposition to the passive consumption of mute commodities, which they held responsible for social alienation and the deadening of aesthetic sensitivities; it also implies the persistent wearing down of whatever the book touches, evoking the undercurrent of creative destruction that courses through the avant-garde mindset.