Jean Marchand (1840-1911) was born in Carouge, in the canton of Geneva (Switzerland). The youngest son in his family, he worked as a spring maker and a cooper. At the age of twenty-three, he married and became a father, but a year later was imprisoned for ‘scandal’. On his release in 1868, he was transferred to the Vernets asylum*. From this time on, he withdrew into himself, living disconnected from those around him and the world, concerned only with his creations.

His production consists mainly of contrived but indecipherable writings in graphite pencil, into which he inserted superfluous letters in decorative script. His texts are often written on tiny torn scraps of paper, which he stored together in envelopes he made himself. He also drew figures, houses, faces in profile, and elements resembling insignia. In addition, Marchand made small objects from folded paper, leaves, or bits of cotton that he sewed or stitched with thread, in which he hid chewed breadcrumbs. Mention was first made of his bound works in 1905.